Judicial Appointments Tracker: March 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.

While last month was fairly eventful with the Supreme Court collegium taking a rare step by recommending the appointment of five retired judges as 'ad hoc judges' of the Allahabad High Court, March 2026 was much slower paced.

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

March 2

The Central Government notified the appointment of seven additional judges of the Kerala High Court as permanent judges. The collegium recommendation in this regard was made on February 12 pursuant to which the government notified the same on March 2.

The following judges were made permanent:

• Justice Abdul Hakhim Mullappally Abdul Aziz;

• Justice Syam Kumar Vadakke Mudavakkat;

• Justice Harisankar Vijayan Menon;

• Justice Manu Sreedharan Nair;

• Justice Easwaran Subramani;

• Justice Manoj Pulamby Madhavan; and

• Justice Marakkaparambil Bhargavan Snehalatha.

March 5

The Central government cleared the appointment of Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.

Justice Dharmadhikari's appointment came on the day of retirement of incumbent Madras High Court Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Srivastava.

Justice Dharmadhikari was serving as a judge of the Kerala High Court, when the Supreme Court Collegium recommended his appointment as Madras High Court's next Chief Justice in a meeting held on February 26, 2026.

His parent High Court is the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

March 6

The Central government notified the appointment of Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Lisa Gill as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

The decision to first transfer and then elevate Justice Gill was taken by the Collegium at a meeting held on February 26.

Justice Gill will initially serving as a puisne judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and next month, she is likely to take over as its Chief Justice, upon the retirement of incumbent Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur on April 24.

The early transfer of Justice Gill is in line with a new policy recently announced by the Supreme Court Collegium.

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.

March 24

The Supreme Court Collegium recommended that the following three additional judges of the Madras High Court be confirmed as permanent judges of that High Court.

• Justice R Poornima;

• Justice M Jothiraman; and

• Justice Augustine Devadoss Maria Clete.

As of April 1, the Central government is yet to clear the recommendations made by the Collegium in February for the appointment of five ad-hoc judges to the Allahabad High Court and nine judges to the Patna High Court.

The March 24 recommendation with regard to appointment of permanent judges of the Madras High Court has also not been cleared by the Central government.