Pranab clears files, apex court to get 3 new judges

The warrant of appointment is expected to be issued next week to enable them to assume office

President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared the elevation of the Chief Justices of Calcutta and Orissa High Courts Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goel, respectively, and senior lawyers Rohinton Nariman as Supreme Court judges.

Earlier this week, >the Law Ministry sent the file to the President after removing the name of the former Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium . The Centre returned his name to the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha for reconsideration.

Highly placed sources said the warrant of appointment is expected to be issued next week to enable them to assume office when the court reconvenes on June 30 after the summer holidays. With their appointment, the strength of judges in the court will go up to 28, as against the sanctioned 31.

However Justices B.S. Chauhan and S.K. Prasad are due to retire in July; the Chief Justice on September 27; and Ms. Justice Ranjana Desai on October 29.

Mr. Nariman is the fifth lawyer to be elevated as Supreme Court judge after almost 15 years. The first to be appointed from the Bar was Justice S.M. Sikri in 1963. He became the Chief Justice of India in January 1971 and retired in April 1973. Justice S.C. Roy was appointed judge in 1971 and he died after holding the post for four months. Then in 1988, after a gap of 15 years, Justice Kuldip Singh was appointed directly from the Bar. He retired in December 1996. Three years later in January 1999, Santosh Hedge was appointed Supreme Court judge and he retired in June 2005.

Justice Goel, 60, who hails from Haryana, was elevated as judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in July 2, 2001, and became its Acting Chief Justice in May 2011, when he was transferred to the Gauhati High Court and became its Chief Justice in December 2011. He was shifted as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court in October 2013. He will be the first judge to represent Haryana in the court and he will have a tenure of a little over five years.

Justice Arun Mishra, 58, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, was appointed a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in October 1999. He was transferred as judge of the Rajasthan High Court in September 2010 and became the Acting Chief Justice in November 1 and Chief Justice on November 26. He was transferred as Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in December 2012. He will represent Madhya Pradesh after Justice Deepak Verma, who retired in August 2012. He will have a tenure of about seven years.

Rohinton Nariman, 58, who is from Maharashtra, is known for his plain-speaking both inside the court and outside. Mr. Nariman was designated as a senior advocate at the age of 37 in 1993 when the then Chief Justice of India, M.N. Venkatachaliah, amended the rules for designating senior lawyers by reducing the minimum age limit of 45.

He was appointed Solicitor-General in July 2011 after Mr. Gopal Subramanium resigned. He will have a tenure of about seven years.