Collegium recommends four HC Chief Justices and Senior Advocate V Mohana to be appointed as Supreme Court judges

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the elevation of four High Court Chief Justices and one Senior Advocate as judges of the top court.

The persons recommended for elevation are:

Justice Sheel Nagu;

Justice Shree Chandrashekhar;

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva;

Justice Arun Palli; and

Senior Advocate V Mohana.

The decision was taken at Collegium meetings held on May 22 and May 27.

If the recommendations are cleared by the Central government, Mohana will be the tenth person to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court from the bar.

She will also be the second woman to achieve that distinction after retired Justice Indu Malhotra.

Justice Sheel Nagu is currently serving as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. His parent High Court is Madhya Pradesh. He was a member of the in-house inquiry committee that examined the cash-at-residence controversy involving Justice Yashwant Varma, one of the most consequential judicial accountability proceedings in recent years.

Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, currently the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, comes from the Jharkhand High Court.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, hails from Delhi High Court.

Justice Arun Palli, Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, is from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Senior Advocate V Mohana practises at the Supreme Court of India and has been among the advocates in the landmark litigation concerning permanent commission for women officers in the Indian Army.

Her elevation, if accepted by the government, will be among a handful of instances in the Supreme Court's history where a lawyer has been directly elevated to the apex court from the Bar.

The Supreme Court's sanctioned strength was recently increased from 34 to 38 by the government.

It is currently functioning with 32 judges.