Supreme Court: The Supreme Court collegium headed by Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud C.J., Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K.M. Joseph J.J., unanimously recommends appointment of 6 Additional Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as Permanent Judges namely:
(i) Shri Justice Vikas Bahl,
(ii) Shri Justice Vikas Suri,
(iii) Shri Justice Sandeep Moudgil,
(iv) Shri Justice Vinod Sharma (Bhardwaj)
(v) Shri Justice Pankaj Jain, and
(vi) Shri Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi.
The aforementioned resolution was passed dated 17-04-2023 with the concurrence of the Chief Minister and the Governors of the States of Punjab and Haryana was received from the Department of Justice dated 13-04-2023.
The Judgment Evaluation Committee consisting of 2 judges of the Supreme Court noted the judgements of Shri Justice Vikas Bahl, Shri Justice Pankaj Jain and Shri Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi as ‘very good’; judgments of Shri Justice Vikas Suri and Shri Justice Sandeep Moudgil as ‘good’; judgements of Shri Justice Vinod Sharma (Bhardwaj) as ‘outstanding’.
The Collegium scrutinized the material placed on record including the observations made by the Department of Justice and the complaints placed before them and opined that the above-mentioned candidates were suitable for being appointed as Permanent Judges. Further stated that the above stated recommendation should be expeditated since the two-year of one of the Additional Judge was due to expire on 24-04-2023.
