The Central Government of Friday has issued a notification for the elevation of 20 addition judges to permanent judges in various High Courts in India. Law and Justice minister Kiren Rijiju wished them good luck in this regard through his tweet. He tweeted, “As per relevant provisions under the Constitution, the following Additional Judges are appointed as Permanent Judges of respective High Courts. I extend my wishes to them.”Last month, the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud recommended the name of these additional judges for making the permanent judge in the their respective high courts in Allahabad, Mumbai, Madras and Delhi. The top court has also recommended the appointment of Justice Amit Sharma, Additional Judge, as a permanent judge of the High Court of Delhi.The collegium also proposed the appointment of five additional judges as permanent judges in the Madras High Court, four in the High Court of Bombay as permanent judges of the High Court and ten additional judges of the Allahabad High Court, as permanent judges.In the proposal of the appointment of the permanent Judge in High Court of Delhi, Justice Amit Sharma, Additional Judge is being appointed as a Permanent Judge of the High Court and recommended him to be appointed as permanent just against an existing vacancy in the court. On January 9, 2023, the collegium of the High Court of Delhi recommended the name of Justice Amit Sharma, Additional Judge, for his appointment as permanent. Before, appointing Justice Amit sharma, in order to ascertain his suitability for the position, the consultation was held in terms of Memorandum of Procedure, with Judges of Supreme Court. The committee constituted in terms of the resolution of the Supreme Court Collegium to access the judgements of Justice Sharma, has submitted its report.Justice Sundaram Srimathy, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravathy, Justice R. VinayaKumar, Justice Mohammed Shaffiq and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad are among the five additional judges who are recommended as Permanent Judges of the Madra High Court by the Collegium on November 21, 2022. The Chief Minister and the Governor of Tamil Nadu agreed with their recommendations and appointments.The Madras High court is working with the current strength of 54 judges and 21 vacancies are open. The sanctioned strength of the court of 75.On December 12, 2022, Justices Rajesh Narayandas Laddha, Sanjay Ganpatrao Mehare, Govinda Ananda Sanap, and Shivkumar Ganpatrao Dige, Additional Judges are among the recommendations for the Permanent Judges of High Court of Bombay. The Collegium with one accord recommended these names which were also approved by the Chief Minister and the Governor of Maharashtra and Goa.As on March 1, 2023, the Bombay High Court is working with the strength of 65 judges against the sanctioned strength of 94, with 28 vacancies. This will now be 42 permanent judges and 23 additional judges.And on November 23, 2022, the Collegium of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad unanimously recommended the names of Justice Chandra Kumar Rai, Krishna Pahal, Sameer Jain, Ashutosh Srivastava, Subhash Vidyarthi, Brij Raj singh, Shree Praksh singh, Vikas Budhwar, Om Prakash Tripathu and Vikram D. Cahuhan, Additional Judges, to be appointed as Permanent Judges of the High Court. The Chief Minister and the Governor of Uttar Pradesh also concur with the above recommendations. The Allahabad High Court is currently working on the strength of 100 judges as against its sanctioned limit of 160.Difference between Additional Judge and Permanent Judge in High CourtThe former judge is appointed by the President whereas the latter is appointed by the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court. Besides this, President has the power to appoint Additional Judges for a temporary period not exceeding two years of time.
