In the middle of all the controversy over supersession of senior judges, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna have been appointed judges of the Supreme Court. The order, issued after President Ram Nath Kovind’s nod, was issued on the recommendation of the country’s five top judges that created a flutter in the legal fraternity. Justice Dinesh Maheshwari is currently Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. Justice Khanna is a judge of Delhi High Court.
It was on January 10 that the SC Collegium recommended their elevation. There were currently five vacancies in the top court. Though it has a sanctioned strength of 31, it is functioning with 26 judges. The top court collegium, which recommended these names, included Justice Madan B Lokur who has since demitted office.

The new collegium headed by the CJI and comprising the five senior-most judges of the top court cleared them. 

Justices Maheshwari and Khanna were not in the zone of consideration in the last few months. In fact, there were strong indications that the Collegium had decided on December 12 last year to elevate Justices Menon and Nandrajog to the Supreme Court.
The Collegium resolution elevating Justices Khanna and Maheshwari also mentioned that some decisions were taken on December 12 last year but the same could not be taken to its conclusion as winter vacation intervened. Subsequently, when the Collegium met again after the court re-opened, it decided to have a fresh look at the matter. 

Former judge of the Delhi high court justice Kailash Gambhir was among the first to speak out against the fresh recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The retired judge had called a ‘black day’ for the Indian judiciary and appealed to President Kovind to hold back his approval and “let another historical blunder be committed.” To have daily updates of blogs, legal topic and legal news visit our website www.lawtendo.com.