Setting a precedence, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has recommended a retired district judge for appointment as judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The collegium, which also includes Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph, recommended the name of Roopesh Chandra Varshney, who joined judicial service on September 28, 1987 and is a senior member of the Madhya Pradesh Higher Judicial Service, for judgeship of the high court.

Prior to this, Justice Baharul Islam (1980) and Justice Fathima Beevi (1989) were appointed as apex court judges after they had retired as judges of a high court. Referring to the Intelligence Bureau report, the collegium said Varshney has a good personal and professional image and that nothing adverse has come to notice against his integrity.

His judicial performance, as assessed by the Evaluation Committee of Judges, is very good and the annual confidential reports of the candidate are noteworthy, it said.

The collegium said on the date of the recommendation by the collegium of the high court, he was about 59.10 years of age and has since retired from judicial service on reaching the age of superannuation. It noted that on the date of the vacancy against which his name has been recommended, his age was 58.03 years and so qualifies with reference to the prescribed age criterion.

Besides Varshney, the collegium recommended the names of Anuradha Shukla, Sanjeev Sudhakar Kalgaonkar, Prem Narayan Singh, Achal Kumar Paliwal, Hirdesh, and Avnindra Kumar Singh for judgeship of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.