The Supreme Court Collegium approved a proposal Wednesday to elevate 16 attorneys to the Bombay and Madras High Courts as judges. The Madras High Court has appointed Nidumolu Mala, Sunder Mohan, Kabali Kumaresh Babu, S. Sounthar, Abdul Ghani Abdul Hameed, and R John Sathyan as judges, an official statement said.
The Bombay High Court will be presided over by Advocates Kishore Chandrakant Sant, Valmiki Menezes SA, Kamal Rashmi Khata, Sharmila Uttamrao Deshmukh, Arun Ramnath Pednekar, Sandeep Vishnupant Marne, Gauri Vinod Godse, Rajesh Shantaram Patil, Arif Saleh Doctor, and Somasekhar Sundare
Collegium was chaired by CJI
Chief Justice of India N V Ramana chairs the Collegium, which also includes Justices U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar. It also approved the elevation of Justice Ahanthem Bimol Singh, an Additional Judge of the Manipur High Court, to the rank of Permanent Judge on Wednesday.
According to the Department of Justice, the country’s 25 High Courts have 411 vacancies as of February 1, 2022, compared to a sanctioned strength of 1,098. Bombay High Court had 34 vacancies, whereas Madras High Court had 15.