Supreme Court Collegium Recommends Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra & Senior Advocate Vishwanathan for Supreme Court Judgeship

Supreme Court Collegium Recommends Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra & Senior Advocate Vishwanathan for Supreme Court Judgeship

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of Chief Justice Prashant Kumar of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and Senior Advocate K.V. Vishwanathan to be appointed as judges of the Supreme Court to fill the vacancies left behind by the retired judges MR Shah and Dinesh Maheshwari.

The Collegium lead by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud passed the resolution which reads:

“The Supreme Court of India has a sanctioned strength of thirty-four Judges and is presently functioning with thirty-two Judges. Thus, there are two clear vacancies. With four more vacancies which are going to arise by the second week of July the working strength of Judges would come to twenty-eight. The Collegium has, however, unanimously resolved to recommend, for the present, names to fill up the two existing vacancies. The Collegium deliberated on and discussed the names of Chief Justices and senior puisne Judges of the High Courts eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court.”

Mr. Vishwanathan would be in line to be the 58th Chief Justice of India in August 2030, succeeding Justice JB Pardiwala as top judge, if his name is cleared by the government. He would also be only the ninth lawyer to be elevated directly to the Supreme Court Bench.

“On the retirement of Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala on August 11, 2030, Shri Viswanathan would be in line to assume office as the Chief Justice of India till his retirement on May 25, 2031,” the collegium resolution stated.

Justice Mishra initially started his journey from the High Court of Chhattisgarh. The collegium noted that there was no representation of the State among the current Supreme Court judges.

Justice Mishra is ranked 21 in the All-India High Court judges list. The collegium said that though Allahabad Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker also comes from Chhattisgarh high Court and is senior to Justice Mishra, it found the latter “worthy” of appointment to the Apex Court.

Justice Mishra was appointed as a judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court on 10 December, 2009. Subsequently, he was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on 13 October, 2021.

The two recommendations precede a series of retirements in 2023. Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, both members of the present collegium, retire in June along with Justice V. Ramasubramanian in June during the summer holidays.

Justice S. Ravindra Bhat retires in October. Justice SK Kaul, the judge number two of the Supreme Court, retires in December this year.