SC Collegium recommends appointment of 5 advocates as Delhi HC judges

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the appointment of five advocates as judges of the Delhi High Court.

The Collegium comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Madan B. Lokur -- three senior most judges of the apex court -- in its September 4 resolution, recommended the names of advocates Jyoti Singh, Prateek Jalan, Anup Jairam Bhambhani, Sanjeev Narula and Manoj Kumar Ohri.

On October 13, 2017, the then Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal, in consultation with her two senior-most colleagues, had fowarded to the apex court Collegium the names of nine advocates for appointment as high court judges.

"For purpose of assessing merit and suitability of the above-named advocates for elevation to the High Court, we have carefully scrutinized the material placed in the file including the observations made by the Department of Justice therein...

"In view of the above, the Collegium resolves to recommend that Jyoti Singh, Prateek Jalan, Anup Jairam Bhambhani, Sanjeev Narula, and Manoj Kumar Ohri, advocates, be appointed as judges of the Delhi High Court. Their inter se seniority be fixed as per the existing practice," stated the resolution of the Collegium.

The Collegium has deferred its decision on the proposal for elevation of four other advocates -- Krishnendu Datta, Saurabh Kirpal, Priya Kumar, and Sanjoy Ghose.

While deferring consideration of their cases, the Collegium said that the proposal for elevating Saurabh Kirpal and Sanjoy Gosh would be taken up for consideration after some time.

For the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Collegium has recommended four advocates -- Manjari Nehru Kaul, Harsimran Singh Sethi, Arun Kumar Monga, and Manoj Bajaj -- for elevation as judges.