Collegium recommends Karnataka CJ for top court

Against a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, the SC currently has 33 judges. The lone vacancy was created when Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul retired in December last year.

Bearing in mind that the workload of judges has increased considerably, it has become necessary to ensure that the Court has full working judge strength at all times,” the statement added.

Apart from CJI Chandrachud, the five-member Collegium that recommends SC judges comprises Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose.

In a four-page statement, the Collegium stated its criteria for recommending Justice Varale. The Collegium statement in the past would only mention a statement containing the recommended names.

The Collegium cited criteria ranging from “the seniority of Chief Justices and senior puisne Judges in their respective parent High Courts as well as overall seniority of the High Court Judges; the merit, performance and integrity of the judges” to diversity and inclusion.”

On diversity and inclusion, the Collegium added that it considered representation of High Courts in the Supreme Court; appointment of persons from marginalised and backward segments of society; gender diversity; and representation of minorities.

The Collegium said Justice Varale, whose parent High Court is the Bombay High Court, is a “competent judge with unimpeachable conduct and integrity and has throughout maintained high standard of professional ethics”. The Collegium also underlined that it has taken into consideration the fact that Justice Varale belongs to the Scheduled Caste and ranks sixth in the All-India list of seniority of High Court judges.