New Delhi: The top five judges of the Supreme Court Monday held deliberations on possible transfers of various high court judges across the country. At least 22 transfers were discussed between the members of the collegium led by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai, ThePrint has learnt.
According to sources in the Supreme Court, the high-power appointment panel is yet to take a final call.
Besides finalising transfers of high court judges, this five-member collegium approves names for judgeship to the Supreme Court and approves Chief Justices for the high courts across the country.
On the other hand, a separate CJI-led panel, which has two senior judges at levels below the CJI as its members, recommends the appointments to HCs.
On Monday, the five-member collegium, sources in the know of the development told ThePrint, mulled over the transfer options, looking at multiple factors, with the lack of senior judges in some HCs being one of the primary ones.
“A lot of thought has gone into these transfers—proposed to take care of the situations where HCs do not have senior judges to lead them. The senior judges have either been elevated or transferred as Chief Justices,” one of the sources said.
The transfers also were to use the experiences of senior judges in other HCs instead of where they have already served. “We want to have diversity in all HCs,” said another source, adding, “All these transfers came up for discussion after taking the respective HC judges in confidence.”
Delhi will witness a revamp, with four senior judges from other HCs to be transferred to the Capital. Sitting judges from Allahabad, Punjab, Haryana, and Bombay will likely come to Delhi. The Allahabad HC judge, a February 2017 appointee, will likely also be part of the Delhi HC collegium.
“In Delhi, there is a lot of gap in terms of experience between the current Chief Justice and the judge below him. To bridge the gap, we are considering having some more senior judges in Delhi,” the source added.
The transfers will come into effect within the next three to four days, another source said, adding that the SC collegium has sought consent from the judges proposed for transfers and invited opinions from sitting top court judges belonging to HCs, where the transferred judges will go.
Among the transfers are three to four cases of repatriations of judges to their parent HCs. “These transfers were cleared by the earlier collegium and happened months ago. Upon receiving the judges’ requests, we decided to accommodate them suitably,” the source said.
Bombay HC judge supersedes seniors to reach SC
The five-member panel also cleared three HC judges for elevation to the Supreme Court. If notified by the Centre, their appointment will fill the current three vacancies in the top court. While two of the three judges serve as HC Chief Justices, one is a judge from the Bombay HC.
They are Justice N.V. Anjaria, parent HC Gujarat and now the Chief Justice of Karnataka HC, and Justice Vijay Bishnoi, originally from Rajasthan and now the Chief Justice of Gauhati HC. Both judges, sources said, are senior and have been selected, besides on account of capability and merit, considering that their parent HCs do not have adequate representation in the top court.
The third appointee, Justice Atul S. Chandurkar of the Bombay HC, is the senior-most judge in his high court, at a level below the Chief Justice. He superseded two senior judges from Bombay, serving as Chief Justices in HCs. One of them, Justice Nitin M. Jamdar, is the Chief Justice of Kerala HC, and the other, Justice K.R. Shriram, is the Chief Justice of Madras HC.
According to sources, the collegium prioritised Justice Chandurkar over justices Jamdar and Sriram because he would have a longer tenure in the top court and would likely be a part of the SC collegium in 2030.
The collegium also recommended a swap between the Rajasthan HC Chief Justice and the Madras HC Chief Justice. Besides, it recommended the transfer of the Jharkhand HC Chief Justice to Tripura and the Tripura HC Chief Justice to Telangana.
Among the five new Chief Justices is Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, currently the Madhya Pradesh HC acting Chief Justice, who will now become Chief Justice in MP. Justice Vibhu Bakhru from the Delhi HC will take over as Karnataka HC Chief Justice, and Justice Ashutosh Kumar, the acting Chief Justice of Patna HC, will go to Gauhati as Chief Justice.
Justice Vipul Pancholi, who was transferred from the Gujarat HC to Patna HC, will become the new Chief Justice in Patna, and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, now serving in the Himachal Pradesh HC, will go to Jharkhand as the Chief Justice.
Centre notifies appointment of 7 new HC judges
In another significant development, the Centre Monday notified the appointment of seven judges to five HCs. Significantly, except for one, the names had been pending with the government for a long time.
Post-notification, three lawyers—Deepak Khot, Amit Seth, and Pavan Kumar Dwivedi—will take oath as judges of the Madhya Pradesh HC. The SC collegium had approved their name more than a year ago. Seth’s name was sent in October 2023, while the panel cleared Khot and Dwivedi in January 2024.
HCs of Punjab & Haryana, Bombay, Gauhati, and Uttarakhand also got one judge each. A source in the Supreme Court said that these appointments got cleared due to the efforts of CJI Gavai, who impressed upon the Centre to notify the names cleared by the SC collegium.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)