The Centre notified the appointments of Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Gujarat High Court judge Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala as the judges of the Supreme Court on Saturday.
An official notification read, “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court, to be a Judge of the Supreme Court of India with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office.”
Justice Pardiwala also received a similar notification of appointment, reported ANI.
The Supreme Court Collegium led by the Chief Justice of India, N V Ramana on Friday recommended the elevation of Justices Dhulia and Pardiwala for appointment as judges of the top court to the Centre.
Justice Dhulia, who hails from Madanpur, a remote village located in the Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand will become the second judge from Uttarakhand High Court to be elevated to the SC.
He was the first Chief Standing Counsel in the Uttarakhand High Court and was later appointed as the additional advocate general for the state of Uttarakhand.
Designated as a senior advocate in 2004, he was elevated as the judge of the High Court of Uttarakhand in November 2008 and was later appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh on January 10, 2021.
On the other hand, Justice Pardiwala will become the fourth Parsi to join the bench of the SC. He will then have tenure of over two years as the Chief Justice of India.
Notably, the elevation of a judge from a minority community is happening after five years when Justice S Abdul Nazeer was elevated to the Supreme Court in February 2017.
Justice Pardiwala started his law practice in the High Court of Gujarat in 1990 and was elected as a member of the Bar Council of Gujarat in 1994.
He was appointed as the Standing Counsel for the Gujarat High Court in 2002 and held the office till his elevation to the bench on February 17, 2011.
Meanwhile, CJI Ramana could evolve a consensus in the five-judge Collegium to unanimously recommend a record number of 11 names so far since August. 2021.
