Amid the ongoing tussle between the executive and the judiciary over the process of appointments, the Centre has reportedly cleared the names of five judges of the Supreme Court, according to media reports.
Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the names of the five Chief Justices of India and high court judges, extending his "best wishes".
Those elevated to the Supreme Court are justices Pankaj Mithal (Rajasthan high court chief justice), Sanjay Karol (Patna high court chief justice), PV Sanjay Kumar (Manipur high court chief justice), Ahsanuddin Amanullah (Patna high court judge), and Manoj Misra (Allahabad high court judge), according to the report which added that the new judges are expected to be sworn in on Monday by CJI DY Chandrachud. These names were recommended by the SC on December 13 last year.
This will make the total number of SC judges 32 out of the 34 sanctioned capacity.
On January 31, the Supreme Court collegium recommended two more names for elevation as top court judges -- Justice Rajesh Bindal, Chief Justice, Allahabad High Court and Justice Aravind Kumar, Chief Justice, High Court of Gujarat.
While recommending their names, the SC Collegium had said the names recommended by it on 13 December 2022 "shall have precedence over the two names recommended presently for appointment to the Supreme Court".
This comes a day after the government said that it was likely to clear the names of three high court chief justices and two HC judges recommended for elevation to the Supreme Court.
