The Supreme Court collegium Monday, recommended the elevation of Patna High Court Chief Justice Vipul Manubhai Pancholi and Bombay High Court Chief Justice Alok Aradhe for appointment as judges of the top court.
The five-member Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, met on Monday to discuss names to fill up the three vacancies in the court. The other members of the SC Collegium are Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, J K Maheshwari, and B V Nagarathna.
Justice Aradhe originally belongs to the Madhya Pradesh High Court and Justice Pancholi to the Gujarat High Court. Given his seniority, Justice Pancholi, if appointed, will be in the line of succession to be the Chief Justice of India from October 2, 2031, to May 27, 2032.
Justice Vipul Pancholi, during his tenure at Gujarat High Court, in January 2022, had dismissed a plea by news network TV18 Broadcast Limited and two journalists of CNBC TV18 — Latha Venkatesh and Nimish Shah — seeking to quash and set aside a criminal case filed against them by Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL) before the judicial magistrate first class of Kalol, Gandhinagar charging them of defamation. According to ATL, the news reports portrayed “proximity and nexus in terms of public shareholding between the Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) and Adani Group with the increase in share price of such companies.”
In February 2023, he had also vacated an interim stay earlier granted by the Gujarat HC in a criminal defamation case against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, accusing Gandhi of defaming the ‘Modi’ community when he allegedly compared PM Narendra Modi to economic offenders Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.
These vacancies had arisen following the retirement of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Sudhanshu Dhulia. The Supreme Court, which has a sanctioned strength of 34, was working with 32 judges after their retirement.
The Collegium also recommended the transfer of 14 High Court judges, including two from the Delhi High Court. Justices Arun Monga, who was transferred from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to the Delhi High Court a month ago, on July 27 has been recommended for a transfer to the Kerala High Court, while Justice Tara Ganju has been recommended for a transfer to the Patna High Court. Justice Atul Sreedharan, judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, is recommended for a transfer to the Chhattisgarh High Court.
