Last month, The Print reported that 1 in every 3 of India’s 687 sitting permanent high court judges is either related to a sitting or former judge, or comes from a family of lawyers. https://theprint.in/judiciary/in-a-first-sc-releases-list-disclosing-proposed-hc-judges-ties-to-sitting-former-judges/2616685/
The Supreme Court has now released a list of 221 candidates approved by the Supreme Court collegium for appointments as high court judges between 9 November 2022 to 5 May 2025.
Of these, 14 candidates are related to sitting or former judges of the Supreme Court or the high courts. It clarifies that a candidate is treated to be related to a former or sitting judge is or was their father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister, brother, sister-in-law, or brother-in-law.
The list also provides a breakdown of candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), or Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories. Of the 221 candidates, 8 belong to the SC category, 7 to ST category, 32 to OBC category, 7 to most backward classes/backward classes category, and 31 to minorities.