The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the elevation of Justices Rajendra Menon and Pradeep Nandrajog to the Bench of the Supreme Court.

Whereas Justice Rajendra Menon is currently serving as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice Pradeep Nandrajog currently heads the Rajasthan High Court as its Chief Justice.

Justice Menon took over as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court in August this year, pursuant to a Collegium recommendation made last July. Prior to that, he had been serving as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.

He had been elevated to the Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court as an Additional Judge on April 1, 2002. He was then posted at the Principal Bench of the High Court in 2008, before his elevation as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in March 2017.

Justice Nandrajog has been serving as the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court since March 2017, following a transfer from the Delhi High Court.  He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Delhi University in 1981 and enrolled as an Advocate that same year. His practice areas included Arbitration, Commercial, Service, Election, Land Revenue, Company and Miscellaneous Writ matters.

He was elevated as an Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court on December 20, 2002 and became a Permanent Judge on April 16, 2004.

The decision to elevate the two judges to the Supreme Court was taken during a Collegium meeting held on Wednesday.

If the proposal for their elevation is approved by the Central Government before the impending retirement of Justice Madan Lokur, the working strength of the Supreme Court will rise to 29 judges against a sanctioned strength of 31 judges,

The working strength of the Court had stood at 28 until the retirement of Justice Kurian Joseph in November. Justice Lokur is also due to retire from office this month.