The Supreme Court Collegium, chaired by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna — wait — chaired by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, on Friday, 30 October 2026, recommended the appointment of five judicial officers as judges of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and six nominees — comprising four advocates and two judicial officers — as judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court, in a single sitting of the apex court's internal appointment body.

Madhya Pradesh High Court: Five Officers Cleared

The Collegium approved the appointment of judicial officers Renuka Kanchan, Krishnamurty Mishra, Virendra Singh Rajput, Mamta Jain, and Ashita Shrivastava as judges of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. The decision was formalised through a statement uploaded to the Supreme Court's official website. 'The Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting held on 30th October, 2026, has approved the proposal for appointment of the following Judicial Officers, as Judges of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh,' the statement read.

Chhattisgarh High Court: Four Advocates, Two Officers Named

For the Chhattisgarh High Court, the Collegium cleared four advocates — Anand Shukla, Ratna Nidhi Pusty (also known as R.N. Pusty or Ratan Pusty), Shashank Thakur, and Sourabh Sharma — along with judicial officers Rajnish Shrivastava and Balram Prasad Verma. The combined batch of six recommendations is a sizeable single-day addition to the court, which has faced a persistent judge vacancy problem in recent years.

Jammu and Kashmir Collegium: Nine Advocates Approved

In a separate but related development, the Supreme Court Collegium — in its meeting held on Thursday, 29 October 2026 — also approved the appointment of nine advocates as judges of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The recommended advocates are Vishal Sharma, Vikram Kumar Sharma, Namgyal Wangchuk, Pawan Kumar Kundal, Tahir Majid Shamsi, Tabasum Zafar, Amit Gupta, Pranav Kohli, and Anupam Raina. This brings the total number of high court judge appointments recommended across three benches in two consecutive days to 20.

How the Appointment Process Works

The appointment of judges to the higher judiciary in India is a continuous, integrated, and collaborative process involving both the executive and the judiciary. It requires consultation and approval from multiple constitutional authorities at the state and Central levels. Crucially, only candidates whose names have been recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium are eligible for appointment as judges of the high courts — a constitutional convention that has stood since the landmark Second Judges Case (1993). This is the Collegium system that has, over the decades, been the subject of ongoing debate between the judiciary and successive governments over transparency and accountability.

Significance and What Comes Next

The twin recommendations for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — both high courts carved out of the same region after Chhattisgarh's formation in 2000 — signal an active period of judicial capacity-building in central India. Pending vacancies in these courts have contributed to case backlogs that critics say delay justice for ordinary litigants. Following the Collegium's recommendation, the files move to the Union Law Ministry, and thereafter to the President of India for formal appointment warrants. The process typically takes several weeks to months.