Now Reading: Centre appoints 9 lawyers as Punjab and Haryana HC judges, 1 excluded
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Centre appoints 9 lawyers as Punjab and Haryana HC judges, 1 excluded
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…
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: 2 sources, 2 neutral
Sources (2): indiatoday.in (neutral report), hindustantimes.com (neutral report)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
