Supreme Court announces nine recommendations for elevation to top court, three women on list

New Delhi: Putting end to all speculation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday published on its website names of nine persons, including three women, it recommended for appointment as judges to the top court.

The names, finalized by Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising the four senior most judges of the top court, are: Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, Justice Hima Kohli, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, Justice C.T. Ravikumar, Justice M.M. Sundresh, Justice Bela Trivedi, and senior advocate P.S. Narasimha.

The list includes three women judges, include Justice Nagarathna from the Karnataka High Court, who if elevated now, could become the country's first woman CJI in February 2027. Her father, Justice E.S. Venkataramiah, had been the CJI for a few months in 1989.

The other two women judges selected by the collegium are Justice Kohli, who is the Chief Justice of Telangana High Court, and Justice Trivedi, of the Gujarat High Court.

Senior advocate Narasimha is the collegium's choice for direct appointment to the bench. His recommendation has come nearly a week after the retirement of Justice Rohinton F. Nariman, who was the fifth lawyer to be directly appointed from the bar.

Of the other names finalised by the collegium are: Justices Oka, Vikram Nath, and Justice Maheshwari, are the Chief Justice of the Karnataka, Gujarat, and Sikkim High Courts, and Justices Ravikumar, and Justice Sundresh, both of the Kerala High Court.

These recommendations have been sent to the Law Ministry, which has the option of sending the recommendations back to the collegium for review. However, if these recommendations are re-submitted by the collegium, then names have to be approved.

Currently, the top court has only one woman judge, Justice Indira Banerjee, who is set to retire in September 2022. There have only been eight women judges appointed in the Supreme Court till date.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court's Justice Navin Sinha retired, leaving 24 judges in the top court, which has a total strength of 34 judges. There has been no appointment after September 2019 as Chief Justice Ramana's predecessor, Chief Justice S.A. Bobde did not make a single appointment during his 17-month tenure, as he couldn't build a consensus on several names, stalling appointments in the top court.