This crucial meeting, anticipated to take place soon, will focus on selecting candidates who demonstrate judicial integrity, experience and competence. The Supreme Court is currently operating with 32 judges, two short of its sanctioned strength of 34, following the recent retirements of justices Aniruddha Bose and AS Bopanna in April and May, respectively. Additionally, justice Hima Kohli is set to retire in September, which adds to the urgency for new appointments.

According to people aware of the matter, the names to be considered by the collegium, presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, include several high court chief justices and senior judges. The other members of the collegium are justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy. Justice Roy is the new entrant to the five-member collegium following the retirement of justice Bopanna in May.

Those in the pool of consideration include justices TS Sivagnanam, N Kotiswar Singh, Siddharth Mridul, Manmohan (who goes by single name), Alok Aradhe, Aparesh Kumar Singh, K Vinod Chandran, Sunita Agarwal, DS Thakur and R Mahadevan. Except justice Mahadevan, all other judges are high court chief justices.

Currently, the chief justice of the Calcutta high court, justice Sivagnanam began his judicial career as an additional judge of the Madras high court in March 2009. He was appointed as the chief justice of the Calcutta high court in May 2023.

Justice Singh was appointed as the chief justice of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh high court in February 2023. He started his judicial career as an additional judge of the Gauhati high court in October 2011.

Serving as the Manipur high court chief justice since October 2023, justice Mridul’s judicial journey began with his appointment as an additional judge of the Delhi high court in March 2008.

Justice Manmohan has been officiating as the acting chief justice of the Delhi high court since November 2023. He was appointed as a judge in the Delhi high court in March 2008.

The chief justice of the Telangana high court since July 2023, justice Aradhe was initially appointed as a judge of the Madhya Pradesh high court in December 2009.

Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh began his judicial career as an additional judge of the Jharkhand high court in January 2012. He was appointed as the chief justice of the Tripura high court in April 2023.

Serving as the chief justice of the Patna HC since March 2023, justice Chandran started as an additional judge of the Kerala high court in November 2011.

Justice Agarwal was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad high court in November 2011, and she has been the Gujarat HC chief justice since July 2023.

Justice Thakur, who is presently the chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh high court, was appointed as a judge in the J&K HC in March 2013.

Justice Mahadevan is a judge of the Madras HC who was appointed in October 2013. He is currently the acting chief justice of the high court.

The Supreme Court collegium, comprising the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges, is the judges’ selection body. A memorandum of procedure (MoP) of appointment was framed in 1999 as the standard based on three decisions of the Supreme Court that evolved the collegium system as the selection mechanism for the appointment and transfer of the judges of the Supreme Court and high courts in India.

The last appointment to the Supreme Court was Justice PB Varale, following the collegium’s resolution in January 2024. With justice Varale’s elevation on January 24, the Supreme Court for the first time has three judges from the Scheduled Caste category, including justices Gavai and CT Ravikumar.

Justice Gavai is in line to become the CJI in May 2025. After justice KG Balakrishnan, justice Gavai will be the second Dalit to become the CJI. Following the retirement of justice Khanna on May 3, 2025, he will remain in that post till November 23, 2025.

In April 2023, justice Chandrachud had said that there cannot be any justification for the collegium to keep even a single vacancy unfilled in the Supreme Court, as he announced involving the Centre of Research and Planning (CRP), the in-house think tank of the top court, in the process of preparing a list of probables for future appointments in the top court. CRP, he announced, was tasked to assist the permanent secretariat in the top court, which deals with various aspects of judicial appointments, including collection of information, preparation of records and putting them up before the collegium.