The Supreme Court collegium has recommended promotion of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale as a judge of the apex court.
If PB Varale’s name gets the green signal from the government, it will be the first time in history when the Supreme Court will have three judges from the Dalit community.
Apart from Justice Varale, the names of two other judges of the Supreme Court coming from the Dalit community are BR Gavai and CT Ravikumar.
Justice Varale was appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court on July 18, 2008, and was elevated as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court on October 15, 2022. According to the Collegium, Justice Varale gained considerable experience as a judge.
Justice Varale is ranked number 6 in the combined all-India seniority of High Court judges. In the seniority of judges of the Bombay High Court, he is the senior most judge.
In a meeting held on Friday, the collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, took into consideration the fact that PB Varale is one of the senior-most judges of the High Court and the only Scheduled Caste member of the High Court. Is the Chief Justice.
The collegium said, “We are also aware of the fact that at present, there are three judges of the Bombay High Court on the Supreme Court bench.
Therefore, the Collegium has unanimously recommended that Justice Prasanna B Varale be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court.”
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul retired on December 25, 2023, after which the seat of a judge in the Supreme Court became vacant. For this reason this recommendation has been made.
The Collegium said that keeping in mind that the workload of judges has increased significantly, it has become necessary to ensure that the court is fully staffed.
Therefore, the Collegium has decided to fill the only existing vacancy by recommending a name.