Supreme Court Collegium recommends names of three advocates for appointment as Delhi HC judges

New Delhi, August 21

The Supreme Court Collegium on Wednesday recommended the names of three lawyers to the Centre for their appointment as Delhi High Court judges.

“The collegium resolves to recommend that S/Shri Ajay Digpaul, Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, and Ms Shwetasree Majumder, advocates, be appointed as Judges of the High Court of Delhi,” the Collegium resolution read.

Led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, the three-member Collegium empowered to recommend names for judgeship in high courts, included two other senior-most judges—Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice BR Gavai.

Against a sanctioned strength of 60 judges, the Delhi High Court is currently functioning with only 39 judges.

For assessing the merit and suitability of the candidates for elevation to the High Court, the Collegium scrutinized and evaluated the material placed on record and perused the observations made by the Department of Justice.

Declaring Digpaul as “fit and suitable for appointment as a Judge of the High Court”, the Collegium noted that “The candidate has a good practice and considerable experience of 31 years in several branches of law including civil, criminal, constitutional, labour, company, service and commercial law with specialization in civil and criminal cases.

Regarding Shankar, it said, “The candidate has extensive practice which is reflected in 180 reported judgments delivered in the cases in which 3 he appeared/argued…”

Similarly, the Resolution stated that Majumder’s expertise in the area of Intellectual Property Rights is of significant importance in view of the pendency of such matters in the High Court which are being dealt with by a dedicated IP Division.