# Centre appoints 9 lawyers as Punjab and Haryana HC judges, 1 excluded 2026-08-21T00:05:45+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Centre on Thursday notified the appointment of nine advocates as additional judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, clearing nine of the 10 names the Supreme Court Collegium recommended in May. The nine new judges are Monica Chhibber Sharma, Harmeet Singh Deol, Pravindra Singh Chauhan (currently Haryana advocate general), Rajesh Gaur, Puja Chopra, Sunish Bindlish, Minderjeet Yadav, Divya Sharma, and Ravinder Malik. The high court now has 55 judges against a sanctioned strength of 85. Hindustan Times reports the court has 4.22 lakh cases pending. The newly elevated judges are likely to take oath on Friday. India Today reports that advocate Navdeep Singh, who was in the collegium's recommendation list, has been excluded without any reason given in the appointment order. With Chauhan's elevation, the Haryana government will need to appoint a new advocate general, says Hindustan Times. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both India Today and Hindustan Times report the Centre's appointment of nine additional judges to the Punjab and Haryana High Court as a straightforward administrative development. India Today explicitly notes the exclusion of one collegium-recommended advocate, Navdeep Singh, framing it as unexplained, while Hindustan Times omits this entirely, instead focusing on the pending case backlog (4.22 lakh) and Haryana's need for a new advocate general. Neither outlet adopts a critical or pro-government stance. The measured middle ground: the appointments fill a judicial vacancy gap but the silence on one rejected name is notable. Readers should watch for any statement from the collegium or the government on Navdeep Singh's exclusion. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - indiatoday.in (neutral report) Reports exclusion of one collegium-recommended name without reason, neutral presentation - hindustantimes.com (neutral report) Omits the excluded name, focuses on backlog and vacancy for Haryana AG This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-21T01:31:41+00:00. Tags: Arjun Ram Meghwal, Navdeep Singh, Pravindra Singh Chauhan, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Supreme Court collegium Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/centre-appoints-9-hc-judges-skips-1-collegium-pick-without-reason/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/centre-appoints-9-hc-judges-skips-1-collegium-pick-without-reason/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/