Centre notifies appointment of four judicial officers as additional judges of Madras HC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Collegium recommended to the Centre the names of four judicial officers, R Sakthivel, P Dhanabal, C Kumarappan and K Rajasekar as additional judges of the Madras High Court.

Taking to Twitter, newly-appointed Law Minister Arjun Meghwal in his tweet said, “In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, the President of India, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is pleased to appoint the following judicial officers as additional judges of the Madras High Court. I convey my best wishes to them.”

The names of the four judicial officers were recommended by the collegium comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph on March 21.

While proposing Mr R Sathivel’s name, the resolution said that the opinion of the consultee judges in the Supreme Court indicates that the above-named judicial officer is fit and suitable for appointment as a judge of the High Court.

Additionally, the collegium while recommending K Rajashekhar’s name has said that his name should be notified after the appointment of Ramaswamy Neelakandan. The collegium said that it had by a previous resolution dated January 17 recommended the appointment of advocate Ramaswamy Neelakandan and reiterated the appointment of R John Sathyan to the Madras High Court.

The resolution in this regard says that, “Shri Neelakandan must be appointed before Shri Rajasekar is appointed. Otherwise, Shri Rajasekar, who is a judicial officer and younger than Shri Neelakandan, would rank senior to Shri Neelakandan. Such a deviation in seniority would be unfair and against the settled convention.”