The Supreme Court Collegium has approved the proposal for the elevation of senior advocate Aditya Sondhi and judicial officers Rajendra Badamikar and Khazi Jayabunnisa Mohiuddin as judges of Karnataka High Court. The Collegium meeting was held on Thursday, February 4.
Aditya Sondhi has been a senior advocate in the High Court since June 2014 and has served as the Additional Advocate General for the Karnataka government as well. He was appointed to the post in 2016. A graduate of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, enrolled at the bar in 1998. He has a PhD in Political Science from Mysore University and prior to that he completed his master’s in the subject from Bangalore University. Sondhi has previously worked under Senior advocate Udaya Holla.
Along with Sondhi, judicial officers Rajendra Badamikar and Khazi Jayabunnisa Mohiuddin were also recommended by the Collegium to be appointed as judges of the High Court.
Meanwhile, the Collegium has also recommended elevations of judges in other High Courts, including ones in Chhattisgarh, Allahabad and Kolkata.
Judicial officer Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi and advocate Narendra Kumar Vyas have been recommended to be elevated as judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court. The Collegium also recommended the elevation of 11 judicial officers of the Allahabad High Court as judges. Eight judicial officers have also been recommended for elevation to the post of judges in the Calcutta High Court.
The Supreme Court Collegium overlooks the appointments, elevation of judges and lawyers to the Supreme Court and transfers of judges of High Courts and Apex Court. The decisions are made by a forum comprising of the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.
As per the procedure for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the 25 high courts, the apex court collegium recommends the names of candidates to the government which, in turn, either accepts the proposal or returns it for reconsideration. The high court collegiums first send their recommendations to the Law Ministry which in turn processes the files by attaching IB reports and forwards it to the SC collegium.