New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday appointted six new judges for the Madras high court. They are Ms Bavani Subbaroyan, Jagdish Chandra, G.R. Swaminathan, Abdul Qudd hose, M. Dhandapani and Aadikesavan. With their appointment the strength of judges in the High Court will increase to 53 as against the sanctioned strength of 75.
The Madras High Court collegium sent a list of 30 names, 19 from the bar and 11 from among district judges in February 2016. The names were pending consideration for a long time as the Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges could not be finalized by the Government.
However, even as the MoP was being finalised, the apex court collegium cleared 24 names and rejected six others, which includes four lawyers and two district judges. The first batch of 15 were cleared in September last and second batch of three in November 2016. It has taken nearly eight months for the appointment of the remaining batch of six persons.
Meanwhile 15 fresh recommendations were sent to the Union Law Ministry in February this year, before the elevation of the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul as a Supreme Court judge. The Ministry has initiated the process of appointment and it is still pending.
