Government forwards nine names recommended for SC elevation to Prez for final call

New Delhi: The government has forwarded nine names recommended by the Supreme Court collegium for appointment of judges in the top court to the President for final approval and a call is expected to be taken "shortly", sources in the government said on Thursday.

With a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, the Supreme Court as of now has ten vacancies.

In a first, the Supreme Court Collegium had last week recommended for appointment to the apex court three women judges, including Justice B V Nagarathna who will be in line to be the first woman Chief Justice of India (CJI) in September 2027 if she gets the final nod.

Besides Justice Nagarathna, the third senior-most judge of the Karnataka High Court, the other women judges whose names have been recommended are Justice Hima Kohli, the Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court, and Justice Bela M Trivedi, the fifth senior-most judge of the Gujarat High Court.

Justice Kohli retires on September 1. Asked what if her warrant of appointment could not be issued before that date, the sources said such a situation may not arise.

While high court judges retire at the age of 62, the retirement age of Supreme Court judges is 65.

They said a final call on the elevation of the nine names recommended would be taken "shortly". Once the names are cleared their warrants of appointment will be issued and the government will then issue a notification announcing the decision.

Besides them, names of Justice C T Ravikumar of the Kerala High Court, and Justice M M Sundresh of the Madras High Court were recommended by the Collegium.

Senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha, whose name if cleared, would became the sixth lawyer to be elevated to the apex court bench directly from the Bar.

The chief justices of different high courts whose names have been recommended are Justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka (Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court), Vikram Nath (Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court) and Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari (Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court).