Supreme Court Collegium Clears Six New Judges for Chhattisgarh High Court Four Advocates, Two Judicial Officers Recommended to the Bench
(By Syed Ali Taher Abedi)
New Delhi / Bilaspur, October 30, 2026: In a significant development for the Chhattisgarh judiciary, the Supreme Court Collegium, at its meeting held on Friday, 30 October 2026, approved proposals for the appointment of six persons as Judges of the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur.
The Names Cleared
From the Bar (Advocates):
- Shri Anand Shukla
- Shri Ratna Nidhi Pusty (also known as R.N. Pusty / Ratan Pusty)
- Shri Shashank Thakur
- Shri Sourabh Sharma
From the Judicial Service:
- Shri Rajnish Shrivastava
- Shri Balram Prasad Verma
Background to the Decision
The Collegium’s move comes after weeks of anticipation in legal circles in Bilaspur. Reports ahead of the meeting indicated that the Collegium had called five advocates from Chhattisgarh including Anand Shukla, Sourabh Sharma, Shashank Thakur and Ratan Pusty for interviews before finalising its recommendations for the Bar quota.
The appointments assume importance in light of the High Court’s strength position. The court has a sanctioned strength of 22 judges, but only about 14 judges were working after the fresh round of appointments in September 2026, leaving a substantial number of vacancies.
Friday’s approval of six names four from the Bar and two from the judicial officers’ quota is expected to go a long way toward easing the pendency and workload pressures on the Bench.
Under the constitutional process, a Collegium recommendation is only the first step. The approved proposals will now be forwarded to the Union Government through the Law Ministry.
After the necessary inputs including intelligence verification and clearance from the state government and the Governor the appointments are made by the President of India under Article 217(1) of the Constitution by warrant under the President’s hand. Only upon issuance of the notification and the taking of oaths do the recommended persons formally assume office as Additional or Permanent Judges of the High Court.
If all six clear the vetting process without objections, the Chhattisgarh High Court’s working strength would rise appreciably, improving the judge-to-case ratio and giving litigants faster hearings across the state’s principal seat at Bilaspur and circuit benches.
