The Supreme Court collegium has recommended to the Centre the names of four high court chief justices for elevation as judges in the apex court. The collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising the Supreme Court's four-senior most judges has recommended the names of justices Hemant Gupta, R Subhash Reddy, M R Shah and Ajay Rastogi to the Centre for their elevation as judges of the top court, as per an October 30 resolution uploaded on the SC's website.

Besides the CJI, the other members of the collegium are justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph, A K Sikri and S A Bobde. Gupta is currently the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and Reddy the Gujarat High Court's chief justice. While Shah is the incumbent chief justice of the Patna High Court, Rastogi is chief justice, Tripura High Court. "Against the sanctioned strength of 31 judges, the Supreme Court of India is presently functioning with 24 judges, leaving 7 clear vacancies. "After extensive discussion and deliberations on a number of occasions, the collegium unanimously resolves to fill up, for the present, four of these vacancies," the resolution said.