On September 1, the Supreme Court Collegium has approved the proposal for the elevation of four advocates – Vikas Suri, Vinod Sharma (Bhardwaj), Pankaj Jain and Jasjit Singh Bedi as judges in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The sanctioned strength of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which is the common High Court for the states of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, based at Chandigarh, is 85 Judges (64 Permanent Judges and 21 Additional Judges).
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court had 45 sitting judges (33 permanent and 12 additional judges).
After today’s approval, the strength would increase from 45 to 49 sitting judges, i.e. there would be 49 sitting judges in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The official statement read, “The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting on 1st September 2021 has approved the proposal for elevation for the following advocates as Judges in the Punjab and Haryana High Court: Vikas Suri, Vinod Sharma (Bhardwaj), Pankaj Jain and Jasjit Singh Bedi.”
The Supreme Court Collegium has given 68 names in one go for elevation as judges to 12 High Courts, that are facing a severe crunch.
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The 12 High Courts for which the recommendations have been made are: Allahabad, Rajasthan, Calcutta, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madras, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, and Assam.
In total, 10 women have been recommended for elevation.
On the same day, SC Collegium recommended 9 names for elevation to the Bench of Supreme Court, this has taken the total strength of the Supreme Court bench to 33.