New Delhi, Jul 12 (DHNS): The Supreme Court collegium has recommended senior advocate Uday U Lalit and three chief justices of high courts for elevation as judges of the apex court.
The chief justices proposed are Meghalaya High Court Chief Justice Prafull Chandra Pant, Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre and Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice R Banumathi.
If all the four names are accepted, the apex court would have its full sanctioned strength of 31 judges.
The fresh recommendation comes soon after the controversy over senior advocate Gopal Subramanium opting out, upset at the government segregating him from a list of four names recommended by the collegium and elevating the rest to the apex court. Senior advocate R F Nariman, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel have already assumed charge on July 7. The fresh recommendation of the collegium comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) R M Lodha and four senior-most judges, to elevate Lalit and others, has been sent to the law ministry, sources said.
Lalit, 58, had consented to the SC collegium recommending him for elevation. The senior advocate has appeared in several high-profile cases. He had represented Yashpal Chudasma and Raj Kumar Pandian, co-accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case with Amit Shah, sources said.
They denied the reports that Lalit had appeared for Shah, then Home Minister of Gujarat and close confidant of Narendra Modi. Shah is now the BJP national president.
Among other cases, Lalit had argued for former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, ex-Army chief Gen V K Singh and black money case accused Hasan Ali. Lalit was also the special public prosecutor in the 2G spectrum scam case after his appointment to the post on an SC order.