First SC judge appointment under CJI Khanna-led collegium has a senior advocate designation controversy

ON Tuesday, the Union Government notified the appointment of Delhi High Court's Chief Justice Manmohan as judge of the Supreme Court of India.

The Supreme Court Collegium, which comprises Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justices B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant, Hrishkesh Roy and Abay S. Oka, had made a recommendation to elevate Justice Manmohan to the Supreme Court on November 28, 2024.

Justice Manmohan stands at serial number 2 in the combined all-India seniority of high court judges. He has superseded Justice Biswanath Somadder who hails from the Calcutta High Court and is presently posted as Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court.

Justice Manmohan was appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on March 13, 2008, and has been functioning as the Chief Justice of that High Court since September 29, 2024.

The collegium, while recommending Justice Manmohan as a judge of the Supreme Court, took into consideration the fact that, at present, the Bench of the Supreme Court is represented by only one judge from the Delhi High Court, that is, CJI Khanna.

It is the first recommendation made by the collegium headed by CJI Khanna to appoint a judge to the Supreme Court. At present, there exists one more vacancy in the Supreme Court.

Justice Khanna took over as CJI on November 11, 2024. During his tenure as CJI, which will last long till May 13, 2025, he will be able to fill three more vacancies in the Supreme Court which will be caused by the retirement of Justice C.T. Ravikumar and Justice Hrishikesh Roy on January 5, 2025, and January 5, 2025 respectively.

Hours after the recommendation of Justice Manmohan to the Supreme Court, there was a controversy over the designation of senior advocates in Delhi by a committee headed by him.

The permanent committee comprising Delhi High Court Chief Justice Manmohan and the next two senior judges of the high court, Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Yashwant Varma, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma and senior advocates Sudhir Nandrajog and Mohit Mathur had forwarded the names of 71 advocates to the full court of the high court for approval as senior advocates.

However, senior advocate Nandrajog claimed that he never signed the list, alleging procedural lapses. Nandrajog told the Hindustan Times that he was excluded from the decision-making process, claiming the list was finalised and sent to him for a post-facto signature while he was away on arbitration duty.

In protest, Nandrajog said he had resigned from the committee, submitted his resignation to Chief Justice Manmohan, and also intimated the Delhi Chief Minister Atishi.

However, the full court chaired by Chief Justice Manmohan went ahead with the process and approved the names of 70 candidates for senior gowns on November 29, 2024.

The matter has reached the Supreme Court, where it is pending a hearing.