SC Collegium elevates 16 advocates as judges in Bombay, Madras HCs

The Supreme Court Collegium Wednesday approved a proposal to elevate 16 advocates as judges in the Bombay and Madras High Courts.
Advocates Nidumolu Mala, Sunder Mohan, Kabali Kumaresh Babu, S. Sounthar, Abdul Ghani Abdul Hameed and R John Sathyan will now be judges in the Madras High Court, an official statement said.
Advocates Kishore Chandrakant Sant, Valmiki Menezes SA, Kamal Rashmi Khata, Sharmila Uttamrao Deshmukh, Arun Ramnath Pednekar, Sandeep Vishnupant Marne, Gauri Vinod Godse, Rajesh Shantaram Patil, Arif Saleh Doctor and Somasekhar Sundaresan will be Judges in the Bombay High Court.
The Collegium is headed Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and also comprises Justices U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar
On Wednesday, it also cleared the elevation of Justice Ahanthem Bimol Singh, Additional Judge of the Manipur High Court, as a Permanent Judge.
As per the Department of Justice, the 25 High Courts across the country had 411 vacancies against a sanctioned strength of 1,098 as on February 1, 2022. Bombay HC had 34 vacancies and Madras HC 15.