Collegium picks for HC includes CJI’s nephew

The Supreme Court collegium’s latest round of recommendations for the Bombay high court is interesting because one of the 14 names proposed for elevation is Raj Damodar Wakode, 45. If his career follows the usual trajectory, he will be in the zone of consideration for the office of Chief Justice of India decades later.

- Utkarsh Anand

That would be significant because he is the nephew of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai, the son of his cousin. That is still rare, but not uncommon in the Supreme Court. As an HT analysis of all Supreme Court judges between 26 January 1950 and 15 May 2025 showed, 32 of the 279 judges were close family relations. To be sure, by the time Wakode eventually finds his way to the top court (if he does), there are likely to have been some more such instances.

The most famous unclenephew pair has to be Justice HR Khanna and his nephew, former CJI Sanjiv Khanna.

The collegium’s statement placed on the Supreme Court website last week lists only the names being recommended and does not disclose any accompanying particulars such as professional affiliations, past associations or the decision-making coram.

A person aware of the matter told HT that CJI Gavai recused himself from deliberations on recommendations where he was directly or indirectly related. “The applications by the candidates and high court proposals had also mentioned about their association with Justice Gavai,” this person added.