SC Collegium Recommends Five New Judges Including Senior Advocate V. Mohana

The Supreme Court Collegium, in meetings held on May 22 and 27, 2026, has recommended the elevation of five distinguished legal professionals to the Supreme Court bench. The recommendations include four sitting Chief Justices of High Courts and one senior advocate, in what marks one of the most significant batches of judicial appointments in recent years. If all five are appointed, the Supreme Court's sitting strength will rise to 37 judges.

The Five Recommended Names

The Collegium has recommended the following persons for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court of India: Justice Sheel Nagu, presently serving as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court; Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court; Justice Arun Palli, Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh; and Senior Advocate V. Mohana.

The four Chief Justices bring extensive experience in judicial administration and adjudication across diverse High Courts. Their simultaneous recommendation reflects the Collegium's effort to fill existing vacancies and strengthen the apex court's capacity to handle its growing docket of cases.

V. Mohana: Second Woman Elevated Directly from the Bar

The most notable aspect of this batch of recommendations is the inclusion of Senior Advocate V. Mohana. If appointed, she will become only the second woman lawyer to be elevated directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court bench. The first was Justice Indu Malhotra, who was appointed in 2018. No woman has been appointed to the Supreme Court since August 2021, making this recommendation particularly significant in the context of gender representation on the apex bench.

V. Mohana studied law at Coimbatore Law College, graduating in 1988 from India's first batch of the five-year integrated law course introduced in 1983. She was designated as a senior advocate in the Supreme Court in April 2015 and has built a distinguished career spanning nearly four decades of practice. She would also be the second woman from Tamil Nadu to reach the Supreme Court, after Justice R. Banumathi.

The Collegium Process and Constitutional Framework

Under the Collegium system, which emerged from the Supreme Court's rulings in the Second and Third Judges Cases, the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court collectively decide on judicial appointments to the higher judiciary. Recommendations by the Collegium are forwarded to the Government for processing, and while the Government may return a recommendation for reconsideration, a reiterated recommendation is conventionally binding.

The present batch of recommendations reflects the Collegium's approach of balancing appointments from the judiciary with direct elevations from the Bar. The inclusion of practising advocates in Supreme Court appointments has been a recurrent point of discussion in judicial reform debates, with proponents arguing that it brings fresh perspectives and diverse expertise to the bench.

Impact on Court Strength and Pending Cases

If all five appointments are confirmed, the Supreme Court's working strength will increase to 37 judges, leaving just one vacancy under the current sanctioned strength. This near-full complement is expected to help the Court address its substantial backlog of pending matters and enable the constitution of more benches for hearing cases across constitutional, civil, and criminal jurisdictions.

Key Takeaways

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended five names for appointment to the Supreme Court: four sitting High Court Chief Justices and one senior advocate. Senior Advocate V. Mohana, if appointed, will be only the second woman elevated directly from the Bar, after Justice Indu Malhotra in 2018. The recommendations were made during Collegium meetings on May 22 and 27, 2026. If confirmed, these appointments will bring the Court's working strength to 37 out of the sanctioned strength. The Government will now process these recommendations in accordance with the established Memorandum of Procedure.