Centre clears SC Collegium's recommendation to appoint 5 new judges

The Centre announced that it has cleared the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation to appoint five new judges to the apex court. The new appointments take the total number of judges in the apex court to 32, two short of the full strength.

The apex court Collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on December 13 last year recommended five judges for elevation to the apex court -- Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, Manipur High Court Chief Justice P V Sanjay Kumar, Patna High Court judge Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Allahabad High Court judge Manoj Misra.

Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice in the Government of India, Kiren Rijiju tweeted, "As per the provisions under the Constitution of India, Hon’ble President of India has appointed the following Chief Justices and Judges of the High Courts as Judges of the Supreme Court. I extend best wishes to all of them."



Law Minister Rijiju recently described the Collegium as being "alien" to the Indian Constitution, while Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar the questioned the Supreme Court striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act and a related constitution amendment Act in 2015.

Through the NJAC law, the government had sought to replace the Collegium system of appointing SC and HC judges with a new method.

The Collegium system has become a major flashpoint between the Supreme Court and the Centre with the mechanism of judges appointing judges drawing criticism from different quarters.

Later. on January 31, the Collegium recommended to the Centre the names of Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar for elevation as apex court judges.

While recommending the two names earlier this week, the Collegium had said, "The names recommended earlier by the Collegium by its resolution dated December 13, 2022 shall have precedence over the two names recommended presently for appointment to the Supreme Court."

The top court, which has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges including the CJI, is functioning with 27 judges presently.

The court, which was hearing two petitions including one related to the Centre's alleged delay in clearing names recommended by the Collegium for appointment as judges to the Supreme Court and high courts, observed that five names for elevation to the apex court were recommended in December last year and now it is February.

(With inputs from PTI)