Madras High Court (File | EPS)
NEW DELHI: After a year's delay, seven new judges were appointed on Friday for the Madras High Court. All the new judges are from the bar and two more advocates recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium were not cleared by the union law ministry without specifying any reason.
The seven new judged are P T Asha, M Nirmal Kumar, Subramonium Prasad, N Anand Venkatesh, G K Ilanthiraiyan, Krishnan Ramasamy and C Saravanan.
Initially, they will be appointed as additional judges for two years. The seven additional judges have to sign their names in Devangari script, which precedes release of their warrants of appointment. They
will be sworn in by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee.
The appointment of additional judges would rise the strength of judges in Madras High Court from 56 to 63 as against the required strength of 75.
Initially, the names of 11 lawyers were recommended for elevation by the collegium headed by the then Chief Justice S K Kaul on December 19, 2016. Of these, nine were cleared by the Supreme Court Collegium in December 2017. There are two other candidates, whose names had also been delinked from the respective lists and decision deferred by the apex court, are awaiting clearance from Apex court.
The Union Law Ministry has on Friday notified the appointment of the seven out of the nine, barring additional public prosecutor Emiliyas and Senthil Kumar.
Their names have not been cleared so far by the Ministry, without assigning any reason.
The latest list has been delayed for more than a year due to developments in the apex court, including an open revolt and a press conference by four senior judges led by Justice J Chalameshwar.
It also got stuck due to a tug of war between the apex court and the Centre over the memorandum of procedure in appointing new judges.
Bar leaders expect disposal of cases to pick up pace when the court reopens after summer recess on June 4.
