Kerala HC Collegium Send Separate Recommendations For Judges Elevation; Disagreement Between Members

The Kerala High Court Collegium has recently sent two separate lists of judicial officers recommended for elevation as High Court judges to the Supreme Court Collegium.

The development resulted from a disagreement among the members of the Collegium.

The collegium that recommended the two lists are Chief Justice S Manikumar, as well as Justice SV Bhatti and Justice K Vinod Chandran.

Chief Justice Manikumar and Justice Bhatti agreed on seven judicial officers’ names and sent a list appropriately.

Nevertheless, Judge Chandran supplied a different list and also expressed his dissent on one judicial officer on the other two justices’ proposed list.

Both lists have now been forwarded to the Supreme Court collegium for consideration.

The two lists of recommendations are as follows:

Chief Justice Manikumar and Justice Bhatti’s list include the following:- PJ Vincent, MB Snehalatha, C Krishnakumar, G Girish, Johnson John and C Pratheep Kumar.

Justice Chandran’s list are as follows:- P Krishnakumar, KV Jayakumar, MB Snehalatha, G Girish, Johnson John, C Pratheep Kumar and P Saidalavi.

It is to be also noted that Justice Vinod Chandran was recently transferred and appointed as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.

Justice Chandran notably left out judicial officers PJ Vincent and C Krishnakumar from his list, instead included KV Jayakumar and P Saidalavi.

The Kerala High Court has currently 36 sitting judges, including the Chief Justice, as opposed to the sanctioned number of 42.