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