4 lawyers become high court judges

Chandigargh: The Union government has notified the appointment of four advocates as judges of the Punjab and Haryana high court. The lawyers who has been elevated to the bench are: Manjari Nehru Kaul, Harsimran Singh Sethi, Arun Kumar Monga, and Manoj Bajaj.

They are expected to take oath next week. On November 24, 2017, then Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court, along with two more senior judges, had recommended the names of 11 advocates for elevation as the judges of the high court.

These included Manjari Nehru Kaul, Sukant Gupta, Harsimran Singh Sethi, Arun Kumar Monga, Sanjay Vashisth, Jasdeep Singh Gill, Manoj Bajaj, Mansur Ali, Sunil Kumar Singh Panwar, Deepinder Singh Nalwa and Harsh Bunger. The Supreme Court collegium, however, had cleared the names of only four lawyers.

The collegium comprising the then Chief Justice Deepak Mishra, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Madan B Lokur, however, had deferred the names of other lawyers including Sukant Gupta, Sanjay Vashisth, Jasdeep Singh Gill, Mansur Ali, Sunil Kumar Singh Panwar, Deepinder Singh Nalwa, and Harsh Bunger for consideration.

On Friday, the SC collegium had cleared the name of two judicial officers from Haryana judiciary — Arun Kumar Tyagi and Lalit Batra — as judge of the high court.

With the elevation of these four lawyers and two judicial officers, the number of judges in the HC would reach 53 against the sanctioned strength of 85.