The Supreme Court’s five-judge collegium led by CJI B R Gavai on Monday recommended to the govt to appoint Bombay high court chief justice (CJ) Alok Aradhe and Patna high court CJ Vipul M Pancholi as Supreme Court judges.
The collegium also comprises Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, J K Maheshwari and B V Nagarathna. Justice Aradhe is from Madhya Pradesh High Court and is fifth on the seniority list of High Court judges. Justice Pancholi, who is from Gujarat High Court, figures at number 57 on the seniority list.
Gujarat High Court already has two judges – J B Pardiwala and N V Anjaria – in Supreme Court. The arrival of Justice Pancholi will give the High Court disproportionate representation. While Justice Pardiwala would have a long two-year-and-three-month tenure as CJI from May 3, 2028, till Aug 11, 2030, Justice Pancholi, on appointment as Supreme Court judge, would have a tenure of over one year and seven months from Oct 3, 2031, till May 27, 2033
In a span of five years, starting from May 3, 2028, two judges from Gujarat High Court would be CJIs and enjoy a tenure of more than four years. The last CJI from Gujarat High Court was Justice A M Ahmadi, who served from Oct 25, 1994, to March 3, 1997.
Aradhe was appointed as a judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2009. Pancholi was appointed as a judge of Gujarat High Court in Oct 2014, which makes him one of the quickest to climb the ladder in the hierarchy-sensitive constitutional courts to reach the highest court. When they get appointed by the President, the Supreme Court will reach its full strength of 34 judges.
Aradhe’s career path meandered through the J&K High Court where he was first a judge and then acting CJ, a responsibility he was to handle also in Karnataka High Court before becoming CJ of Telangana High Court in July 2023. He took oath as Bombay High Court CJ on Jan 21 this year. Pancholi’s career progression has been smoother. He was transferred in July 2023 to Patna High Court, where he became its CJ a month back.
Supreme Court sources said the collegium also decided to transfer as many as 14 judges from different High Courts, which included two from Delhi High Court – Justices Arun Monga and Tara V Ganju. Sources said while Justice Monga is recommended to be transferred to Kerala High Court, Justice Ganju has been recommended to be transferred to Patna High Court.
It has also decided to transfer Atul Sreedharan from Madhya Pradesh High Court to Chhattisgarh High Court, Sanjay Agrawal from Chhattisgarh High Court to Allahabad High Court, J Nisha Banu from Madras High Court to Kerala High Court, Dinesh Mehta from Rajasthan High Court to Delhi High Court, Avneesh Jhingan from Rajasthan High Court to Delhi High Court, Sanjay Kumar Singh from Allahabad High Court to Madras High Court, Rohit Ranjan Agarwal from Allahabad High Court to Calcutta High Court, Manavendranath Roy from Gujarat High Court to Andhra Pradesh High Court, Donadi Ramesh from Allahabad High Court to Andhra Pradesh High Court, Sandeep Natvarlal Bhatt from Gujarat High Court to Madhya Pradesh High Court, Chandrasekharan Sudha from Kerala High Court to Delhi High Court and Subhendu Samanta from Calcutta High Court to Andhra Pradesh High Court.
