Judicial Appointments Tracker: February 2026

Judicial Appointments Tracker aims to provide monthly updates on the appointment status of a candidate from the time they are recommended for judgeship by the Supreme Court Collegium until the appointment is cleared by the Central government.

Below are the details of the recommendations made by the Collegium and the appointments notified by the Central government in February 2026.

February 3

In a rare move, the Supreme Court Collegium approved a proposal to appoint five retired judges as 'ad hoc judges' of the Allahabad High Court for a period of two years under Article 224A of the Constitution of India.

In a resolution passed at its meeting held on February 3, the Collegium cleared the names of the following judges to sit and act as ad hoc judges of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.

- Justice Mohd. Faiz Alam Khan;

- Justice Mohd. Aslam;

- Justice Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi;

- Justice Renu Agarwal; and

- Justice Jyotsna Sharma.

However, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HCBA) opposed the resolution a week later. In a representation addressed to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, the HCBA termed the move inexplicable, questioning why these specific five were seemingly picked "out of the blue."

February 10

The Central government notified the appointment of advocate M Balaji as an additional judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. His appointment had been recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on January 28.

February 12

The Supreme Court Collegium approved the proposal to appoint the following 7 additional judges of the Kerala High Court as permanent judges, namely:

• Justice MA Abdul Hakhim;

• Justice Syam Kumar VM;

• Justice Harisankar V Menon;

• Justice Manu S;

• Justice Easwaran S;

• Justice MP Madhavan; and

• Justice MB Snehalatha.

The first six judges were appointed as additional judges on March 22, 2024. Justice Snehalata was appointed on April 25, 2024.

February 26

The Supreme Court Collegium recommended the appointment of two High Court Chief Justices.

Pursuant to a meeting held on February 26, the Collegium recommended that Kerala High Court Justice SA Dharmadhikari be appointed as the next Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.

On the same day, the Collegium also recommended that Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Lisa Gill be appointed as Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Justice Dharmadhikar's appointment took effect from March 6, following the retirement of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Srivastava on March 5.

Justice Gill's initial appointment at the Andhra Pradesh High Court is as a puisne judge. She will take over as the High Court's Chief Justice on April 25, when the incumbent Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur demits office.

This early transfer of Justice Gill is in line with a new policy the Collegium announced along with the resolution recommending these appointments.

Under the new policy, a judge proposed to take over as Chief Justice of a High Court may be transferred well in advance—preferably two months before the vacancy arises—so that the incoming Chief Justice becomes familiar with the functioning and administrative affairs of the High Court before formally assuming charge.

The Collegium said that the move is intended to ensure that the recommendee becomes “well conversant with the affairs of that High Court and assumes charge of the office of Chief Justice on the retirement of the incumbent Chief Justice.”

On February 26, the Collegium also recommended the names of the following nine advocates for appointment as judges of the Patna High Court.

• Md. Nadim Seraj;

• Ranjan Kumar Jha;

• Kumar Manish;

• Sanjeev Kumar;

• Girijish Kumar;

• Alok Kumar;

• Raj Kumar;

• Rana Vikram Singh; and

• Vikash Kumar.

While the Central government cleared the recommendations regarding Justices Dharmadhikari and Gill in early March, the recommendations for the appointment of ad-hoc judges to the Allahabad High Court and judges to the Patna High Court have not been notified yet.