SC collegium recommends Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale’s elevation as top court judge
New Delhi, January 19
The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, on Friday, recommended the elevation of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale as a top court judge.
In another decision, it recommended Justice P S Dinesh Kumar’s name for appointment as the chief justice of the High Court of Karnataka.
If Justice Varale’s name is cleared by the Centre, he would become the third sitting apex court judge from a Scheduled Caste community. The others are Justices B R Gavai and C T Ravikumar.
Justice Varale was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Bombay on July 18, 2008, and elevated as the chief justice of the High Court of Karnataka on October 15, 2022.
According to the collegium, Justice Varale acquired considerable experience as a judge of the High Court of Bombay and as the chief justice of the High Court of Karnataka.
“The judgments authored by him deal with a variety of issues in every field of law. He is a competent judge with unimpeachable conduct and integrity, and has throughout maintained high standard of professional ethics.
“Before his elevation as a Judge of the High Court, he practised at the Bar for over 23 years in civil, criminal, labour, and administrative law matters in District and Sessions Court, and in Constitutional matters at the High Court Bench at Aurangabad. Justice Varale stands at Sl No.6 in the combined all-India seniority of High Court judges,” the collegium said.
“In the seniority of judges of the High Court of Bombay, he is the senior-most judge,” it added.
In a meeting, the collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose said, “We are also conscious of the fact that at present, there are three judges from the High Court of Bombay on the Bench of the Supreme Court. The collegium, therefore, unanimously resolves to recommend that Justice Prasanna B Varale be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of India,” it said.
Recommending Justice P S Dinesh Kumar’s name for appointment as the Karnataka High Court chief justice, the collegium noted that the position would fall vacant with Justice Varale’s elevation to the Supreme Court and therefore, an appointment to the office was required to be made.
“Justice Pratinidhi Srinivasacharya Dinesh Kumar was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Karnataka on January 2, 2015. He has acquired sufficient experience on the judicial and administrative side as a puisne judge of the high court. He is due to demit office on superannuation on February 24, 2024, and will have a tenure as a chief justice of little over a month,” it said.
The collegium also took note of the vacancy that arose in the Supreme Court with the retirement of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on December 25, 2023.
“Bearing in mind that the workload of judges has increased considerably, it has become necessary to ensure that the Supreme Court has full working judge-strength at all times. The collegium has, therefore, decided to fill up the sole existing vacancy by recommending a name,” it said.
The collegium said the Supreme Court operated almost throughout the last year with its full strength of 34 judges and hence, achieved the distinction of recording an unprecedented disposal of 52,191 cases in the calendar year 2023.
While recommending appointments to the Supreme Court, the collegium has taken into consideration the seniority of chief justices and senior puisne judges in their respective parent high courts as well as the overall seniority of the high court judges, it said.
The collegium said it also took note of the merit, performance, and integrity of the judges under consideration and the need to ensure diversity and inclusion in the Supreme Court.
