SC Collegium Recommends Elevation Of 3 Judicial Officers As Judges Of MP HC; Remits Names Of 5 Lawyers To HC CJ

The Supreme Court collegium has recommended the appointment of three Judicial Officers as judges of Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The Collegium comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice MB Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph recommended elevation of the following judicial officers:

Vishnu Pratap Singh Chauhan
Rajeev Kumar Shrivastava
Shailendra Shukla

The resolution stated that the candidature of two more judicial officers—Rajendra Prasad Sharma and Rajesh Gupta—would be taken up for consideration by the Collegium after some time.

It further took note of the fact that the proposal involved non-recommendation of two senior Judicial Officers, but agreed with the justification given by the High Court Collegium for not recommending them.

It, however, remitted to the Chief Justice of the high court, the candidature of the following five lawyers:

Rahul Jain
Pranay Gupta
Ravindra Singh Chhabra
Deepak Awasthi
Ami Prabal

The resolution noted that while the views of the State Government of Madhya Pradesh had not been received so far, it invoked the provisions of the Memorandum of Procedure, which mandates that in such a situation, it can be presumed by the Union Government that they have nothing to add to the proposal, and proceed accordingly.

The collegium, however, opined that the names of the advocates need to be remitted back, “on the basis of interaction and having regard to all relevant factors”.