The Collegium led by Justice N V Ramana has selected nine names to fill as many vacancies in the Supreme Court, including an unprecedented three women, one among them - Justice B V Nagarathna of Karnataka HC - could become the first woman chief justice of India.
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Other names shortlisted to be recommended to the government for appointment as Judges are - Telangana HC CJ Hima Kohli (parent HC Delhi), Justice Bela M Trivedi of Gujarat HC (who started her career with Gujarat Judicial Service), Karnataka CJ A S Oka (parent HC Bombay), Gujarat HC chief justice Vikram Nath (parent HC Allahabad), Chief Justice of Sikkim HC J K Maheshwari (Parent HC Madhya Pradesh), Justice C T Ravi Kumar and M M Sundaresh (both parent HC Madras).
Former additional solicitor general P S Narasimha is the lone selection from bar for appointment directly as a Judge of the SC.
Though it would bring the judge strength in the SC to almost full strength of 34, another vacancy would be caused on Wednesday with Justice Navin Sinha's retirement. However, the selection of nine, if the recommendations are accepted by the government, would concentrate the judge population in the SC mainly to a few states - Maharashtra , Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The Collegium, also comprising Justices U U Lalit, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and L N Rao - appeared to have ignored the north-eastern states completely, which had just three judges in the last 15 years in H K Sema, M K Sharma and Ranjan Gogoi.
The selected nine too appear to have superseded many senior judges and overlooked the SC constitution bench's judgement, which created the framework of Judges-selecting-Judges system, suggesting an equitable regional and multi-cultural balance in the judge selection. Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh did not have representation in the SC for a long time and though there are Judges with requisite seniority available in the pool, their aspirations have been dealt a blow by the Collegium in its Tuesday evening meeting.
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October 30, 1962-born Justice B V Nagarathna, daughter of 19th CJI Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah, had enrolled as an advocate on October 28,1987 at Bangalore. She was appointed as an additional Judge of the Karnataka HC on February 18, 2008 and was made a permanent Judge on February 17, 2010.
She will have a tenure, on appointment as an SC judge, till October 29, 2027 and may have a tenure of nearly nine months as the first woman CJI after succeeding Justice Surya kant, who would retire as CJI on February 9, 2027.
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