Centre clears collegium's recommendation; notifies appointment of five judges to SC

Accepting the recommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium, the Centre on Saturday evening notified the appointment of five Judges to the Supreme Court.

The names notified are of three high court chief justices and two high court judges – Justice Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court; Justice Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice, Patna High Court; Justice P V Sanjay Kumar, Chief Justice, Manipur High Court; Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah of Patna High Court; and Justice Manoj Misra of Allahabad High Court.

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. pic.twitter.com/DvtBTyGV42

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) February 4, 2023

The names were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on December 13 last year.

Working strength

With these appointments, the working strength of the Supreme Court will rise to 32.

The sanctioned strength of the apex court is 34, including the Chief Justice of India. Its present working strength is 27.

The appointments were cleared a day after the Attorney General for India R Venkataramani informed the Supreme Court that the central government will very soon clear the recommendations forwarded by the Supreme Court collegium in December 2022.

Now there remains only two vacancies at the Supreme Court, which could be filled in coming days if SC Collegium’s January 31 proposal to elevate Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar as SC judges, is accepted by the president, according to Live Law.