New Delhi: The Union government on Wednesday notified the elevation of Justice Alok Aradhe, Chief Justice of the Bombay high court and Justice Vipul Manubhai Pancholi, Chief Justice of the Patna high court as judges of the Supreme Court of India.

The Union government’s swift action on the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendations comes despite a dissent note penned by the top court’s lone woman judge, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, opposing Justice Pancholi’s elevation.

Justice Nagarathna’s dissent note was hinged on the argument that Justice Pancholi’s appointment to the apex court would be “counter productive” and could harm its reputation. She pointed out that his transfer as the Chief Justice of Patna high court from the Gujarat high court was not a routine move but taken after due deliberation at the highest levels. 

The note also highlighted that the Gujarat high court was already well represented in the top court via Justices J.B. Pardiwala and N.V. Anjaria and that Justice Pancholi's elevation could create an imbalance while leaving other high courts under-represented.

Since Justice Pancholi ranks 57th among the high court judges across the nation, Justice Nagarathna's opposition “was therefore owing to her opinion that there were multiple other meritorious and senior judges who could be considered for elevation before Justice Pancholi.”

In her dissent note, she also underlined that Justice Pancholi’s superseding of several other high court judges would also put him in line to become the Chief Justice of India from October 2031 to May 2033. “This, in her view, would not be in the judiciary's interests, given the concerns raised by her,” reported Hindustan Times.

Other elevations

The Union government also approved the elevation of 14 advocates as additional judges in the Bombay high court.

Among those elevated are Sandesh Dadasaheb Patil and Shreeram Vinayak Shirsat, till now appearing for the Union government and representing Union agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the high court as public prosecutors. 

The list also includes Ashish Sahadev Chavan, a special public prosecutor for Maharashtra government in several matters as well as an empaneled counsel for ED. 

The list of the Collegium’s recommendation also features Farzan Parvez Dubash, currently the secretary of the Bombay Bar Association, one of the country’s most powerful bodies of lawyers. 

Also In the list of newly-appointed judges is Raj Damodar Wakode, nephew of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai. A Hindustan Times report said, “A person aware of the matter told HT that CJI Gavai recused himself from deliberations on recommendations where he was directly or indirectly related.” The source told the newspaper, “The applications by the candidates and high court proposals had also mentioned their association with Justice Gavai.” 

However, Wakode’s name featured in the list of recommendations made on August 19 by the five-member Collegium headed by CJI Gavai, has sparked considerable attention. 

The report also added that as per its analysis of Supreme Court judges between 26 January 1950 and 15 May 2025, “32 of the 279 judges were close family relations.”

“To be sure, by the time Wakode eventually finds his way to the top court (if he does), there are likely to have been some more such instances. The most famous uncle-nephew pair has to be Justice H.R. Khanna and his nephew, former CJI Sanjeev Khanna,” the report said.

With the latest round of 14 appointments of judges carried out in the Bombay high court, its strength of judges has shot up to 83. Though its sanctioned strength is 94, the Bombay high court, the second largest after the Allahabad high court, had been functioning only with 69 judges. The Bombay high court also has benches at Goa (Panaji), Nagpur and Aurangabad besides a new circuit bench at Kolhapur. 

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