Collegium rejects Orissa chief justice’s recommendations to appoint advocates, judicial officers as HC Judges

NEW DELHI: The SC collegium, headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi, has rejected the Orissa High Court chief justice’s recommendations for appointment of advocates and judicial officers as HC judges.

It has, however, cleared one judicial officer and deferred an advocate’s proposal for HC judgeship to be considered at a later stage. The recommendations were among the last files cleared by outgoing Odisha chief justice Vineet Saran on May 18 this year, who has been appointed as SC judge.

ET, on August 23, had first reported that 12 names for appointment as judges to the Orissa HC were recommended despite objections raised by two of the three HC collegium members to majority of the names. Justices Indrajit Mahanty and Sanju Panda, senior judges and members of Orissa HC collegium, had expressed their dissent on majority of the names.


On October 31, the SC collegium, comprising justices Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph, sent back the CJ’s proposal to appoint seven advocates and three judicial officers to the Orissa HC. The seven advocates were Pranaya Kishore Harichandan, Kali Prasanna Mishra, Bimbisar Dash, Narasingh V, Tushar Kanti Satapathy, Bishnu Prasad Pradhan and Sameer Kumar Das. The proposal in respect of Kali Prasanna Mishra was deferred. The names of advocates were rejected as the collegium “resolution indicated that most candidates failed to meet the income criteria”.

The resolution said judicial of ficers Satyanarayan Mishra, Bibhu Prasad Routray and Gautam Sharma “do not qualify the prevailing norms of eligibility”, and “the proposal in respect of these three recommendees deserves to be sent back to the chief justice of the high court for reconsideration by the present high court collegium.” However, Akshay Kumar Mishra was cleared as a judge of the HC.