Supreme Court Collegium Recommends Four High Court Chief Justices and One Senior Advocate for Apex Court Elevation

Ten days after President Droupadi Murmu issued an ordinance increasing the sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court of India to 38, the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant on Wednesday recommended the appointment of four High Court Chief Justices and one senior advocate as judges of the apex court.

The names recommended by the Collegium are:

• Sheel Nagu
• S. Chandrashekhar
• Sanjeev Sachdeva
• Arun Palli
• Senior Advocate V. Mohana

If appointed, V. Mohana will become only the second woman after former Justice Indu Malhotra to be directly elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court as a judge.

Initial discussions regarding the appointments were held at the residence of the Chief Justice on May 22 and reportedly continued past midnight. However, the Collegium finalized the names on Wednesday.With the appointment of the five recommended candidates, the strength of judges in the Supreme Court of India will increase from the current 32 to 37, leaving only one vacancy in the apex court.On Wednesday, the Collegium comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Vikram Nath, J. K. Maheshwari, B. V. Nagarathna, and M. M. Sundresh finalized the names after dropping candidates over whom there were differences of opinion.

Who is Justice Sheel Nagu?

Sheel Nagu, currently the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, was also a member of the three-judge in-house inquiry committee constituted by former Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna.

The committee was formed in March last year to investigate the recovery of a large amount of partially burnt cash from the residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma.Justice Varma later resigned from his position as a judge of the Allahabad High Court.

Justice Sheel Nagu Set to Become Supreme Court Judge, Tenure Till 2029

Sheel Nagu was appointed as a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in May 2011 and later became the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 9, 2024. If elevated to the Supreme Court of India, he will have a tenure of around three and a half years and is scheduled to retire on December 31, 2029.

Meanwhile, V. Mohana is a first-generation lawyer in her family and became an Advocate-on-Record in 1996. She was designated as a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court in April 2015.A native of Coimbatore, Mohana has practiced law for more than 37 years after earning her law degree in 1988.