Collegium recommends 10 Advocates, 1 Judicial Officer for appointment as Allahabad HC judges [Read Resolutions]

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended 11 names for elevation to the Bench of the Allahabad High Court, by two resolutions passed on February 12, 2019.

Judicial Officer Ali Zamin, was originally considered for elevation as a High Court judge by the Supreme Court Collegium in October last year, along with the names of fourteen others. However, the Collegium found it appropriate that the proposal for his elevation be deferred.

The Collegium has now approved the proposed elevation of Ali Zamin, following an Allahabad High Court communication made last November. The Collegium has taken into account the report of the Chief Justice as well as observations made by the Department of Justice to arrive at its decision. The Collegium resolution states,

“Having regard to all relevant factors, the Collegium is of the considered view that Shri Ali Zamin is suitable for being appointed as Judge of the Allahabad High Court.

In view of the above, the Collegium resolves to recommend that Shri Ali Zamin, Judicial Officer, be appointed as Judge of the Allahabad High Court.“

Another resolution passed the same day deals with the proposed elevation of 16 advocates. The Collegium had originally considered these names along with 17 other names in September last year. However, the consideration of these 16 names was deferred at the time.

Of these names, one advocate, Manish Goyal has withdrawn his consent to be made a judge. Therefore, the Collegium has not considered his proposed elevation further.

Of the remaining advocates, the Collegium has approved the elevation of ten names. The advocates so recommended for appointment as Allahabad High Court judges are Vipin Chandra Dixit, Ramanand Pandey, Shekhar Kumar Yadav, Ravi Nath Tilhari, Deepak Verma, Gautam Chaudhary, Manish Kumar, Vivek Ratan Agrawal, Samit Gopal and Alok Kumar Yadav.

Notably, the resolution informs that while net professional income earned by some of the above advocates is below the prescribed minimum income limit of Rs 7 lakhs, the Collegium considered it appropriate to relax the income criterion to a reasonable extent in cases where the recommendees belong to categories of SC/ST/OBC or represent the Government. 

The names of four advocates i.e.Vivek Prasad Mathur, Sudeep Kumar, Sunil Kumar (Mishra) and Ashish Pandey were remitted back to the Allahabad High Court. With respect to  one advocate, Dinesh Pathak, the Collegium has deferred consideration in order to look into certain unconfirmed inputs regarding his proposed elevation.

Read the Resolutions: