New Delhi, 19 Jan

Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Friday recommended the elevation of State High Court Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale as a top court judge. In another decision, it recommended Justice PS Dinesh Kumar's name for appointment as the Chief Justice of the High Court.

If Justice Varale's name is cleared by Centre, he would become the third sitting apex court judge from a Scheduled Caste community. The others are Justices BR Gavai and CT Ravikumar.

Justice Varale was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Bombay on 18 July, 2008, and elevated to the chief justice of the High Court of Karnataka on 15 October, 2022.

According to the collegium, Justice Varale acquired considerable experience as a judge of the High Court of Bombay and as the chief justice of the High Court of Karnataka.

"The judgments authored by him deal with a variety of issues in every field of law. He is a competent judge with unimpeachable conduct and integrity and has throughout maintained a high standard of professional ethics.

"Before his elevation as a Judge of the High Court, he practised at the Bar for over 23 years in civil, criminal, labour and administrative law matters in District and Sessions Court and Constitutional matters at the High Court Bench at Aurangabad. Justice Varale stands at Sl No.6 in the combined all-India seniority of High Court Judges," the collegium said.

"In the seniority of Judges of the High Court of Bombay, he is the senior-most Judge," it added.

In a meeting held on Friday, the collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, took into consideration the fact that Varale is among the senior-most high court judges and is the only high court chief justice from the Scheduled Caste.

"We are also conscious of the fact that at present, there are three judges from the High Court of Bombay on the Bench of the Supreme Court. The Collegium, therefore, unanimously resolves to recommend that Mr Justice Prasanna B Varale be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India," it said.

Recommending Justice P S Dinesh Kumar's name for appointment as the Karnataka High Court chief justice, the collegium noted that the position would fall vacant with Justice Varale's elevation to the Supreme Court and therefore, an appointment to the office was required to be made.

"Justice Pratinidhi Srinivasacharya Dinesh Kumar was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Karnataka on January 2, 2015. He has acquired sufficient experience on the judicial and administrative side as a puisne judge of the high court. He is due to demit office on superannuation on February 24, 2024, and will have a tenure as a Chief Justice of little over a month," it said. The collegium also took note of the vacancy that arose in Supreme Court with the retirement of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on 25 December, 2023.