Centre Notifies Appointment of 14 Judges and Additional Judges Across Four High Courts
The Central Government has notified the appointment of 14 judicial officers as Judges and Additional Judges across four High Courts, covering Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Jharkhand and Karnataka. The appointments were notified on September 19 following recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium.
The latest appointments include seven judicial officers for the Delhi High Court. Nivedita Anil Sharma and Nisha Sahay Saxena have been appointed as Judges, while Sanjay Sharma, Bharat Parashar, Dr Aditi Choudhary, Dinesh Bhatt and Arun Bhardwaj have been appointed as Additional Judges.
For the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Yash Paul Bourney has been appointed as a Judge. Bourney is a senior judicial officer who joined the Jammu and Kashmir judicial service in 1997 and entered the District Judge cadre in 2011.
The Jharkhand High Court will receive three new Judges. Manoj Prasad, Akhil Kumar and Ram Sharma have been appointed to the High Court, adding to its judicial strength.
The Karnataka High Court has also received three appointments. Usharani, K.S. Bharath Kumar and Nerale Veerabhadraiah Bhavani have been appointed as Additional Judges.
Union Minister for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the appointments on September 19. The notifications state that the appointments were made by the President in exercise of constitutional powers and after consultation with the Chief Justice of India.
The appointments follow recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium at its meeting on September 10, 2026, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. Reports indicate that the Collegium had recommended 15 judicial officers for these four High Courts, while 14 appointments have been notified in the latest round.
In the Delhi High Court recommendations, eight names had been considered by the Collegium, but seven have appeared in the government’s September 19 notification. Gurvinder Pal Singh, whose name was included in the Collegium’s recommendation, does not appear in the latest notification.
The appointments form part of the continuing process of strengthening the judicial capacity of High Courts through fresh elevations and appointments. High Courts handle a wide range of constitutional, civil, criminal, commercial and administrative litigation, making judicial strength an important element of the functioning of the higher judiciary.
The latest notification also reflects the different categories through which judicial officers are appointed. Some have been appointed as Judges, while others have initially been appointed as Additional Judges under the constitutional framework governing High Court appointments.
For the Delhi High Court, the seven appointments represent the largest share in this particular notification, while Jharkhand and Karnataka receive three appointments each and the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court receives one.
The development comes shortly after another major round of High Court appointments in August, when the Centre notified appointments involving the Madras, Calcutta, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh High Courts. That earlier round involved 30 appointments, underlining the continuing pace of judicial appointments during 2026.
The September 19 notification therefore adds another group of judicial officers to the High Court system and follows the established constitutional process involving recommendations by the Supreme Court Collegium, consultation with the Chief Justice of India and formal appointment by the President.
