SC Recommended 5 Women Judicial Officers For Elevation As Judges

The Supreme Court collegium recommended the elevation of five women officers as judges of the high court. SC collegium recommended nine judicial officers from Punjab and Haryana.

A meeting of the Collegium was held on September 12, thereafter the recommendations came into effect. The collegium also recommended the elevation of six judicial officers and two lawyers as judges of the Bombay HC and confirmation of three additional judges as permanent judges of the Karnataka High Court.

The notification list includes - Amarjot Bhatti (District and sessions judge, Hoshiarpur), Ritu Tagore (Principal judge, family court, Ambala), Manisha Batra (District and sessions judge, Panipat), Harpreet Kaur Jeewan (District and sessions judge Rupnagar), Gurbir Singh (District Judge, Chandigarh), Deepak Gupta (District and sessions judge, Panchkula), Sukhwinder Kaur (Presiding officer, state transport authority, Punjab), Sanjiv Berry (Registrar General, Punjab and Haryana high court), and Vikram Aggarwal, (Registrar vigilance, high court).

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Appointments of Women Judges For High Court

The last judicial officers appointment as HC Judges were made on November 28, 2019. The current strength of the high court is 56 judges. If all the recommendations are approved, then the tally will be 65, the highest number of judges the high court ever had. The ratified strength of judges is 85, but the total strength rarely touched 60. The total strength of women judges in the high court is eight, and if all recommendations are endorsed, the digits would be 13. To name current high court judges- Justice Ritu Bahri, Justice Lisa Gill, Justice Jaishree Thakur, Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul, Justice Alka Sarin, Justice Meenakshi I. Mehta, Justice Archana Puri, and Justice Nidhi Gupta Again the highest number of women judges in the high court.

The recommendations were made three days after the high court sustained the seniority list of Haryana Superior Judicial Service officers. Since August 2015, the dissension over seniority was pending. The recommendations came at a time when the HC is staring at a crisis, with more than 10 Judges retiring by next year. The central government issues the final notification on appointments.