SC collegium gives nod to 4 advocates for Patna HC judgeship

PATNA: The Supreme Court collegium on Monday recommended the names of four Patna high court advocates to central government for judgeship at the same place where they are practising.

The advocates whose names have been recommended by the collegium after scrutiny for judgeship at Patna high court are Anjani Kumar Sharan, Anil Kumar Sinha, Prabhat Kumar Singh and Partha Sarthy.

While Sharan is assistant solicitor general of central government, Singh and Sarthy are state government advocates. Sarthy is also the son for former Chief Justice of India LM Sharma.

The Patna high court has 27 judges against the sanctioned strength of 53. Of the 27 judges, 21 are permanent while six are additional judges. Of the sanctioned strength of 52 judges, 40 positions are for permanent judges while rest 13 are for additional judges.

Recently on March 11, the apex court collegium had recommended the names of Anil Kumar Upadhyay, Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, Madhuresh Prasad, Mohit Kumar Shah and Prakash Chandra Jaiswal to the Centre for appointing them as permanent judges from additional judges of the Patna high court.

According to the collegium resolution on Monday, the Chief Justice of Patna high court had recommended the names of six advocates on July 20 last year in concurrence with governor and chief minister of the state.

The names included Rajendra Kumar Giri and Vikash Kumar apart from the four recommended by the collegium. After going through the relevant factors and perusing materials placed in files, the top collegium considered the view of remitting the two names to Patna high court.