Only 14 Of 221 Persons Approved By SC Collegium For HC Appointments Since Nov 2022 Are Judges' Kins

Of the 221 recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium for High Court Judges' appointment during November 9, 2022, to May 5, 2025, only 14 are related to retired or sitting Judges, the data published by the Supreme Court revealed. This means only 6% of the appointments had family connections.

The revelation offers a perspective to the allegations regarding the presence of nepotism in judicial appointments.

The names of Judges having relations to sitting or former Judges are as follows :

1. Justice Nupur Bhati (Rajasthan High Court) : wife of Justice Pushpender Singh Bhati, Judge of Rajasthan HC.
2. Justice Yogendra Kumar Purohit  (Rajasthan HC) : brother-in-law of Justice Manoj Vyas and Justice Uma Shankar Vyas of Rajasthan HC.
3. Justice Praveer Bhatnagar (Rajasthan HC) : son of Justice Ranvir Sahai Varma, former Rajasthan HC Judge.
4. Justice Prashant Kumar (Allahabad HC) : son of Justice Maheshwari Prasad Singh, former Allahabad HC Judge.
5. Justice Manish Kumar Nigam (Allahabad HC) : son of Justice Ramesh Prasad Nigam, former Allahabad HC Judge.
6. Justice Shailesh Pramod Brahme (Bombay HC) : son of Justice Pramod Shantaram, former Bombay HC Judge.
7. Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal (Chhattisgarh HC) : brother-in-law of Justice SK Agrawal, Chhattisgarh HC Judge
8. Justice Rohit Kapoor (Punjab and Haryana HC)       : son-in-law of Justice Amar Dutt Sharma, former P&H HC Judge.
9. Justice Rudra Prakash Mishra (Patna HC)           : son-in-law of Justice Shyam Shankar Tripathi, former Allahabad HC Judge.
10. Justice Bibhu Datta Guru (Chhattisgarh HC).     : son-in-law of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, Supreme Court Judge.
11. Justice Deeptendra Narayan Ray  (Gujarat HC)  : son of Justice GN Ray, former Supreme Court Judge.
12. Justice Tejas Dhirenbhai Karia  (Delhi HC)        : son of Justice Dhirenbhai.G Karia, ex-Gujarat HC Judge &  brother of Justice BD Karia, Gujarat HC Judge.
    
13. Justice Soni Srivastava (Patna HC)                :  daughter of Justice Rekha Kumari, former Patna HC Judge.
14. Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra (Calcutta HC)  : son of Justice Ronojit Kumar Mitra, former Judge of Calcutta HC.

The data also revealed that out of 303 proposals received (between Nov 2022 to Nov 2024), the Supreme Court Collegium approved 170 appointments for High Courts, including 7 judges from Scheduled Castes, 5 from the Scheduled Tribes, 21 from the OBC, 28 women, 23 minorities, and 12 related to judges and 7 from the most backward classes.

Also read- 29 Supreme Court Collegium Recommendations From Nov 2022 For HC Judges Pending With Central Government