The Supreme Court Collegium comprising five judges on Thursday recommended elevation of Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai and Justice Surya Kant as judges of the Supreme Court.
The Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi also rejected the Centre's plea to reconsider and instead reiterated recommendation for the elevation of Justices Aniruddha Bose and AS Bopanna, as judges of the apex court.
Justice Gavai is presently a judge of the Bombay High Court and Justice Kant is the incumbent chief justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
As per the Collegium recommendation uploaded on the top court's website, the five-member Collegium headed by Chief Justice Gogoi met on Wednesday and recommended these two names for their elevation as Supreme Court judges.
Against the sanctioned strength of 31 judges, the apex court is presently functioning with 27 judges.
Last year, the government had returned Justice Bose's name to the Collegium when he was recommended as the chief justice of the Delhi High Court.
While rejecting Centre's objection, the court observed that "merit should be the predominant consideration" and not just "seniority".
