In its largest-ever single judicial appointment exercise, the Collegium of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, led by Chief Justice Arun Palli, has forwarded 11 names to the Supreme Court Collegium and the Union Law Ministry for appointment as High Court Judges. The move is a direct response to a crippling bench strength deficit, with only 13 of 25 sanctioned posts filled, and carries historic significance: one of the nominees, if confirmed, would become the first woman from Kashmir ever appointed to this court.
The High Court has long operated well below functional capacity, a situation made more acute after the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, acting in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, expanded the court's sanctioned strength from 17 to 25 in November 2024, comprising 19 permanent and 6 additional Judges, without a corresponding influx of appointments. The retirement of Justice Javed Iqbal Wani on March 23 further thinned the bench to just 13, leaving 12 vacancies. Against this backdrop, Chief Justice Palli conducted multi-day consultations with the court's two senior-most puisne judges, Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sindhu Sharma, before finalising a list designed to balance regional representation and social diversity across Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The Collegium's list comprises 10 advocates from the Bar quota, including Vishal Sharma (Assistant Solicitor General, Jammu), Tahir Majid Shamshi (Deputy Solicitor General, Srinagar), former Additional Advocate General Amit Gupta, and advocates Namgyal Wangchuk, Jahangir Iqbal Ganai, Pawan Kumar Kundal, Tabasum Zafar, Anupam Raina, Vikram Kumar Sharma, and Pranav Kohli, along with one judicial officer from the Bench quota: Yash Paul Bourney, currently serving as a member of the J&K Tribunal and the senior-most eligible judicial officer. The nomination of Tabasum Zafar was explicitly made "to give representation to women advocates" from the Kashmir Valley, a constituency that has never before had a female judge on this bench.
The finalized recommendations have been dispatched to the J&K Lok Bhawan, with copies forwarded to the Supreme Court Collegium and the Union Law Ministry, setting the formal approval chain in motion.
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