Centre clears appointment of 9 advocates as Punjab and Haryana High Court judges

The Central government has issued a notification for the appointment of 9 lawyers, including three women, as judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The lawyers elevated to the Bench are:

(i) Monica Chhibber Sharma;

(ii) Harmeet Singh Deol;

(iii) Pravindra Singh Chauhan;

(iv) Rajesh Gaur;

(v) Puja Chopra;

(vi) Sunish Bindlish,

(vii) Minderjeet Yadav;

(viii) Divya Sharma; and

(ix) Ravinder Malik;

The appointment comes pursuant to a recommendation made by the Supreme Court Collegium on May 4 for appointment of 10 advocates.

While the government cleared the appointment of 9 of the 10 names recommended by the Collegium, it has not yet cleared the name of military law expert Senior Advocate Navdeep Singh.

Senior Advocate Pravindra Singh Chauhan, whose name has been cleared for judgeship, is currently the Advocate General of Haryana. The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently dismissed a plea challenging the Collegium’s recommendation to appoint him as a judge.

There are currently 55 judges in Punjab and Haryana High Court. It has an approved judge strength of 85 – a vacancy position of 27.