SC Collegium recommends elevation of advocate as Delhi HC judge

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, on Thursday recommended the elevation of advocate Tejas Dhirenbhai Karia as judge in the Delhi High Court.

In October last year, the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues, forwarded the recommendation for his appointment.

The SC Collegium said that the sole-consultee judge opined that advocate Karia is a domain specialist and has practised mainly in the field of arbitration, adding that "his appearances in the High Court may not be as many as would be expected, but his appearances in matters of significance before the Arbitration Tribunals make up for that".

"The inputs provided by the Department of Justice in the file indicate that nothing adverse as to the integrity of the candidate has come to notice," noted the SC Collegium.

The candidate is a domain expert in the law of arbitration and the volume of cases on arbitration law requires specialised handling, particularly, in the Delhi High Court, it added.

Further, the SC Collegium said, “Tejas Dhirenbhai Karia will prove to be a value addition to the Bench of the High Court of Delhi. Besides appearing in arbitration cases before the High Courts and the Supreme Court, he has extensive experience in conducting arbitrations, both domestic and international. While doing so, a practitioner has to have knowledge of other branches of law, civil procedure, evidence and commercial law. Upon perusing the judgments in the cases which he has argued, it is apparent that Tejas Dhirenbhai Karia has conducted issues of substance before the High Courts and other Courts, including the Supreme Court."

Opining that advocate Karia is eminently fit and suitable, the SC Collegium resolved to recommend his candidature as a Delhi High Court judge.