Notify appointment of 5 judges recommended in December before notifying new ones: Collegium to Law Ministry

The Supreme Court Collegium on Tuesday made it clear to the Union Law Ministry that its earlier recommendation to elevate five High Court judges to the apex court shall have precedence over the resolution passed today, calling for the elevation of Justices Aravind Kumar and Rajesh Bindal..The Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud stated in its resolution published today,"The names recommended earlier by the Collegium by its resolution dated 13 December 2022 shall have precedence over the two names recommended presently for appointment to the Supreme Court. Therefore, the appointments of five judges recommended on 13 December 2022 should be notified separately and earlier in point of time before the two judges recommended by this resolution.".Justice Bindal is currently serving as Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court while Justice Kumar is Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. Today's Collegium statement also revealed that while the decision to recommend Justice Bindal was unanimous, Justice KM Joseph expressed reservations over the elevation of Justice Kumar, who he believed could be considered at a later stage..On December 13, 2022, the Collegium had recommended the following five High Court judges for appointment to the Supreme Court.- Justice Pankaj Mithal (Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court);- Justice Sanjay Karol (Chief Justice of Patna High Court);- Justice PV Sanjay Kumar (Chief Justice of Manipur High Court);- Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah (Judge of Patna High Court);- Justice Manoj Misra ( Judge of Allahabad High Court)..Justice Pankaj Mithal is currently serving as the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court. Previously, he was Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. His parent High Court is the Allahabad High Court.Justice Sanjay Karol is currently the Chief Justice of Patna High Court. He is former Chief Justice of Tripura High Court. His parent High Court is the Himachal Pradesh High Court.Justice PV Sanjay Kumar is Chief Justice of Manipur High Court. Prior to that he served as a judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court. His parent High Court is Telangana.Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah is presently the Judge of the Patna High Court. He has served at the Andhra Pradesh High Court before being transferred back to Patna, his parent High Court.Justice Manoj Misra is a judge at the Allahabad High Court. He was elevated as an additional Judge on November 21, 2011 and was made a permanent judge on August 6, 2013..If these five recommendations, as well as those from today are cleared by the Central government, the Supreme Court will work at its full sanctioned strength of 34 judges..[Read today's resolution]