The Supreme Court Wednesday said the Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana has recommended to the Centre nine names, which include three women high court judges, for appointment as judges at the apex court.

It said in a statement that the Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting held on August 17, has recommended names of four chief justices of different high courts for elevation as top court judges.

Besides them, names of Justice B V Nagarathna from the Karnataka High Court, Justice C T Ravikumar of Kerala High Court, Justice M M Sundresh of Madras High Court and Justice Bela Trivedi from the Gujarat High Court judge have been recommended by the Collegium.

Senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha, whose name if cleared, would became the sixth lawyer to be elevated to the apex court bench directly from the Bar.

The four chief justices of different high courts whose names have been recommended are -- Justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka (Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court), Vikram Nath (Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court), Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari (Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court) and Justice Hima Kohli (Chief Justice of Telengana High Court).

With the retirement of Justice R F Nariman on August 12, the strength of judges in the top court had come down to 25 as against the sanctioned strength of 34, including the CJI.

Justice Navin Sinha of the apex court is also retiring today which will further bring down the number to 24.

Significantly, no appointment has been made after the superannuation of the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi on March 19, 2019.

The five-member Collegium also comprises Justices U U Lalit, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.

The recommendations, if accepted, will fill all current vacancies taking the working strength to 33.