Govt clears names of four judges for Supreme Court elevation

History is in the making as Supreme Court, for the first time ever, will work to its full capacity of 31 judges, with the Government on Wednesday clearing four names to be appointed as Supreme Court judges.

The four judges – Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai (of Bombay High Court), Justice Surya Kant (Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court), Justice Aniruddha Bose (Chief Justice of Jharkhand HC), and Justice AS Bopanna (Chief Justice of Gauhati HC), are likely to be sworn in this week.

At present the working strength of judges in SC is 27 and the next vacancy is due in August. The Collegium of the SC comprising CJI Ranjan Gogoi and four senior most judges – Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, and RF Nariman had cleared the names of Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant on May 8. On that day, the Court had reiterated the names of Justices Bose and Bopanna, earlier recommended to Centre on April 12 but were returned with an objection over their seniority.

The seniority list of HC judges maintained by the Department of Justice of the Central Government showed Justice Bose at No. 12 and Justice Bopanna at No. 36. Moreover, their parent High Courts are Calcutta HC and Karnataka HC which already are represented in the SC.

The Collegium gave predominance to merit and brushed aside the Centre's objections over the combined seniority of the judges on an all-India basis. Also, the Collegium noted that since nothing adverse was cited by the Centre regarding their "competence, conduct or integrity" the names deserve reconsideration.

As regards the other two judges, Justice Gavai has an all-India seniority ranking of No. 8 hails from Bombay High Court and belongs to the Scheduled Caste community. He is set to become CJI, the second judge from the Scheduled Caste community to reach at the top after Justice (Retd) KG Balakrishnan (CJI from January 14, 2007 to May 12, 2010). Justice Surya Kant belongs to Punjab and Haryana High Court and is ranked No. 11 in the combined seniority of HC judges on all-India basis. He too is destined to become CJI as well.