V Mohana became only the second woman Wednesday to be recommended by the Collegium for direct elevation from the Bar to the Supreme Court, after Justice Indu Malhotra. Should she join Justice Malhotra on the Bench, she would only be the 12th woman to become a Supreme Court judge in its 76-year history.

Chennai-born Mohana has practised for nearly four decades in the Supreme Court, building a reputation as a low-profile lawyer who took on constitutional, civil and criminal matters and served as amicus curiae in several significant cases. Among her most noted appearances was the landmark litigation on permanent commission for women officers in the Indian Army.

If appointed, she will share the Bench with a classmate from Coimbatore Law College, Justice K V Viswanathan, also appointed directly from the Bar. They were part of the first batch of the five-year law course from 1983 to 1988. Both moved to Delhi upon graduating and entered the chambers of senior advocate C S  Vaidyanathan before going on to work with K K Venugopal, the former Attorney General.

Mohana may have a five-year tenure as Supreme Court judge, till June 2031, when she reaches the retirement age of 65 for apex court judges – among the longest for a woman judge in the apex court. Viswanathan, who is on course to become CJI, would have retired by May 2031.

The Supreme Court has only one woman judge currently, Justice B V Nagarathna, who is in line to become the first woman CJI. The other women judges who have had a tenure of over five years in the Court are Justices Ruma Pal and R Banumathi.

The other recommendations by the Collegium for appointment to the Supreme Court:

Currently the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Sachdeva’s parent HC is Delhi. His elevation would take the Delhi representation in the Supreme Court to two judges, including Justice Manmohan, who is expected to retire in December 2027.

Justice Sachdeva, 62, enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1988, and has practised in district courts, the Delhi HC and the Supreme Court. He was standing counsel for the Bar Council of India and senior panel counsel for the Union of India for over a decade, before being designated a Senior Advocate by the Delhi HC in July 2011.

In 2013, Justice Sachdeva was elevated as an Additional Judge of the Delhi HC, and spent over a decade on the Bench, dealing with primarily taxation, criminal, civil and commercial matters.

In 2018, he dismissed a petition by the Intelligence Bureau’s central public information officer seeking to block disclosure of information on alleged human rights violations involving a forest officer.

Transferred to the Madhya Pradesh HC in May 2024, he took charge as Acting Chief Justice a year later and was appointed Chief Justice in July 2025. In April this year, Justice Sachdeva initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against a BJP MLA and mining baron for allegedly attempting to contact a sitting judge in a mining case. He also ordered the removal of 102 web links “misusing” live-streamed court proceedings, having earlier paused live-streaming for all criminal matters in September 2025, and took cognisance of the unauthorised felling of 488 trees near Bhopal by the PWD.

If appointed, Justice Sachdeva is likely to have a tenure of over three-and-a-half years in the apex court, retiring in December 2029.

He is the Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh HC, and his elevation to the Supreme Court would bring Punjab and Haryana’s representation in the apex court to three, including CJI Surya Kant and Justice Augustine George Masih.

Also 62 years of age, Justice Palli is a fourth-generation lawyer who began his practice at the Punjab and Haryana HC after completing his law degree in 1988, across civil, criminal, constitutional, revenue, industrial and labour law. He served as Additional Advocate General for Punjab from September 2004 to March 2007, before being designated a Senior Advocate in April 2007. He was elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana HC in December 2013 and took charge as Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh HC in April 2025.

In December 2025, he dismissed a PIL by former Chief Minister and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti seeking repatriation of undertrial prisoners from jails outside J&K, recording that the petition appeared to be “for the explicit purpose of garnering political advantage” and for Mufti “positioning herself as a crusader of justice for a particular demographic”. In the same month, his Bench took suo motu cognisance of emergency procedures coming to a standstill at the Government Super Speciality Hospital in Jammu owing to alleged unpaid government dues of around Rs 30 crore.

Earlier this month, his Bench held that disclosure statements by a co-accused, absent any other incriminating material, cannot serve as sufficient ground for denying bail to a UAPA accused.

If appointed, Justice Palli will serve approximately 3 years and 4 months, retiring in September 2029.

Incidentally, his elevation would see him supersede his senior from the Punjab and Haryana HC, Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia, who is currently the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh HC.

Justice Sandhawalia, who is due to retire in October 2027, ranks fifth in seniority across all HC judges in the country, while Justice Palli ranks at 28.

Justice Chandrashekhar, whose parent HC is Jharkhand, is the Chief Justice of the Bombay HC. He was part of the three-member committee constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to investigate allegations of cash seizure against Justice Yashwant Varma, which submitted its report earlier this month, saying there was credence to the charges. If appointed, Justice Chandrashekhar would become the first apex court judge from Jharkhand.

Ranchi-born, Justice Chandrashekhar, 61, did his LLB from the Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, in 1993, and enrolled as an advocate in December that year. He practised civil and criminal matters for nearly 19 years across various courts, including the Supreme Court, appearing for both the government and private entities.

He became an Additional Judge of the Jharkhand HC on January 17, 2013, was confirmed as a Permanent Judge on June 27, 2014, and served as Acting Chief Justice of the Jharkhand HC in December 2023.

He was transferred to the Bombay HC on July 14 last year and sworn in as its 49th Chief Justice on September 5, 2025. If elevated, Justice Chandrashekhar would have a brief tenure at the HC, but notable, across politically sensitive, environmental, commercial and criminal matters. His Bench upheld the 2018 special court verdict acquitting all 22 accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case, quashed charges against the last four remaining accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case, and quashed an FIR against former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey.

His Bench also set aside MMRDA penalty demand notices related to BKC plots, ordering refunds of over Rs 700 crore to entities, including Reliance Industries. It also allowed the felling of 45,675 mangroves for the proposed Versova–Bhayandar coastal road project, holding that their destruction could be permitted only for “demonstrably required public interest”, a ruling the Supreme Court later declined to interfere with.

If appointed, Justice Chandrashekhar will serve approximately 3 years and 11 months as a Supreme Court judge, retiring in May 2030.

Justice Nagu is the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana HC, with the Madhya Pradesh HC his parent court. He was also part of the committee that investigated the allegations against Justice Varma.

Justice Nagu, 61, enrolled as an advocate in October 1987 and practised on the civil and constitutional sides at the Madhya Pradesh HC in Jabalpur. He was elevated as an Additional Judge of the HC in May 2011 and confirmed as a permanent judge in May 2013. During his tenure of over 12 years in the HC, he authored more than 499 reported judgments. He was appointed Acting Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh HC in May 2024 and was sworn in as the 36th Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana HC on July 9, 2024.

Apart from being part of the panel hearing allegations against Justice Varma, Justice Nagu was part of the Bench that held that illegal mining in rivers must be taken seriously despite limited statutory punishment, declining to interfere in a matter involving environmental damage to rivers. His Bench also cautioned against “meritless” petitions challenging competitive examination answers, warning that the integrity of expert evaluators cannot be allowed to erode.

If appointed, Justice Nagu will serve approximately 3 years 7 months in the Supreme Court, retiring in January 2030.