Ibrahim Kalifulla elevated to Supreme Court

March 8, 2012

The collegium of judges has cleared the name of Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla for elevation and he will soon be a Judge of Supreme Court. Justice Kalifulla, who comes from Tamil Nadu and he will be the second judge to represent the Madras High Court, after Justice P. Sathasivam. Justice Kalifulla will have about 4 years in tenure as Supreme Court Judge. Justice Kalifulla will be the 3^rd Muslim Judge, after Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Aftab Alam.

There is no representation for Christians after the retirement of Justice Cyriac Joseph. There is no representation for Scheduled Castes after the retirement the former Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan in 2010. Before Justice Balakrishnan, Justice K. Ramaswamy who retired in 1997 represented the community.

The collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia, considered the elevation of Justice Kalifulla, albeit he became a permanent judge of the Madras High Court only in March 2000, and there are several other Chief Justices much senior to him.The Supreme Court now has 25 judges, against the authorized strength of 31. Although appointments are not made on the basis of seniority or regional considerations, as per convention, every State is represented by at least one judge at any point of time. There is no representation for Assam or the northeast after the retirement of Justice Mukundakam Sharma in July 2011. Although the Punjab and Haryana High Court is represented, there is no representation for Haryana as such, and a bigger High Court like the Allahabad High Court has only one representation.

In May 2012, Justice Dalveer Bhandari is expected to be appointed a judge at the International Court of Justice and thus the strength will again come to 25.

The present strength of judges is represented as follows: