NEW DELHI: The Centre has cleared all the nine names for appointment to the top court.
Reportedly, the names were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium that currently has 24 judges against a sanctioned strength of 34. However, the names have been sent to the President for approval.
As per the reports, the nine names include Vikram Nath from Gujarat, A S Oka from Karnataka, Hima Kohli from Telangana, J K Maheshwari from Sikkim along with four High Court judges namely, Justices B V Nagarathna from Karnataka, M M Sundresh from Madras, C T Ravikumar from Kerala and Bela M Trivedi from Gujarat and Senior Advocate P S Narasimha.
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According to a report, recommendations have been “processed, approved and forwarded to the President for issuance of warrants of appointment”.
It further added “If all goes well, the Supreme Court may see near full strength by early next week”.
According to the reports, for the first-time names of three women are included in the list. Probability lies that Justice Nagarathna could go on to become the country’s first woman Chief Justice. Although the tenure would be just for over a month — from September 25 to October 29, 2027.
The other two women are Justice Hima Kohli, Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court;, and Justice Bela Trivedi of the Gujarat High Court.
Justice Nagarathna, daughter of former CJI E.S Venkata Ramaiah practiced commercial law in Bengaluru. Earlier, she was appointed as Additional Judge of the Karnataka High Court in 2008. She is currently the second most senior judge in the High Court.