New Delhi: Supreme Court Collegium recommended Madras High Court ACJ Munishwar Nath Bhandari be appointed as CJ of Madras High Court. SC Collegium headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana on Monday has recommended to the Centre 17 Judges in the States of Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Out of them three Judges were from the quota of judicial officers and remaining 14 are from the bar. Justice Bhandari assumed office as the ACJ of Madras High Court on November 22^nd, 2021. Justice Bhandari, hailing from Rajasthan, was appointed as Judge of the Rajasthan High Court in 2007. He was transferred to Allahabad High Court in 2019 where he served until being transferred to Madras HC. As a lawyer, he had handled a wide range of legal issues before becoming a High Court judge.

His focal areas were Constitutional, civil, service, labour, criminal and arbitration issues. He also practiced at the Supreme Court.

The SC Collegium also recommended seven advocates were recommended as Judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court; four advocates to the Odisha High Court and three advocates to the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Besides, three judicial officers were recommended for promotion as Judges in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on 29^th January, 2022 in a statement said the SC has approved the proposal for elevation of the following advocates as Judges in the Andhra Pradesh High Court: Konakanti Sreenivasa Reddy, Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad, Venkateswarlu Nimmagadda, Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao, Satti Subba Reddy, Ravi Cheemalapati and Vaddiboyana Sujatha. The Collegium also approved proposals for elevation of six as judges in the Madhya Pradesh High Court and four in the Orissa High Court.

The proposed names of advocates for elevation as Judges in the Orissa High Court are V Narasingh, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Biraja Prasanna Satapathy and Sri Raman Murahari. The proposed names of advocates for elevations as Judges in Madhya Pradesh High Court are Manider Singh Bhatti, Dwarka Dhish Bansal, Milind Ramesh Phadke and judicial officers promoted as Judges are Amar Nath Kesharwani, Prakash Chandra Gupta and Dinesh Kumar Paliwal.