SC Collegium recommends 5 names to Centre for appointment as apex court judges
New Delhi, Dec 13: The six-member Collegium led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Tuesday recommended five judges, including Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sanjay Karol, the chief justices of Rajasthan and Patna high courts, for elevation as judges of the top court.
Besides Justices Mithal and Karol, the Collegium also recommended the name of Justice P V Sanjay Kumar, the Chief Justice of Manipur High Court, for appointment as a Supreme Court judge, the recommendations uploaded on the apex court's website said.
The Collegium also recommended the name of Ahsanuddin Amanullah, a judge of the Patna High Court, as SC judge. It recommended Justice Manoj Misra, a judge of the Allahabad High Court, for elevation as an apex court judge.
The Collegium's recommendations, if accepted by the Centre, will raise the total number of judges in the apex court to 33 against the sanctioned strength of 34 including the CJI.
The Supreme Court Collegium also recommended the elevation of three high court judges as chief justices of the high courts of Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and Gauhati.
Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra of Uttarakhand High Court has been sent to Jharkhand High Court.
Justice N Kotiswar Singh of the Gauhati High Court has been sent to Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. Justice K. Vinod Chandran of Kerala High Court will be the new chief justice of the Gauhati High Court.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
