New Delhi
The Supreme Court Collegium is understood to have recommended elevation of four High Court Chief Justices MR Shah, Ajay Rastogi, Hemant Gupta and R Subhash Reddy for appointment as judges of the top court which is functioning with only 24 judges against a sanctioned strength of 31.

The recommendations made by the Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi — would now go to the government which has to process the files and clear the names before the President finally issues warrants of appointment, sources said.

In August, Justice Indira Banerjee, Justice Vineet Saran and Justice KM Joseph elevated to the top court which has been functioning with lesser number of judges for quite some time. With Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Lokur and Justice Sikri are due to retire in November, December and March, respectively, the situation is likely to remain more or less same.

Justice Shah is the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, while Justice Gupta is the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Justice Reddy is heading the the Gujarat High Court and Justice Rastogi is the Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court.

Justice Shah is from the Gujarat High Court where he was appointed as an additional judge in March 2004 and made a permanent judge in 2005. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in August this year.

Justice Gupta was appointed a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in July 2002 and was transferred to the Patna High Court in February 2016 where he also served as the Acting Chief Justice before being appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in March 2017.