Supreme Court gets 9 new judges
Nine new judges, including three women, were on Thursday appointed to the Supreme Court with President Ram Nath Kovind signing their warrants of appointment, sources in the government told news agency PTI. A formal notification would be issued shortly, they said.
The new judges of the top court include Justice BV Nagarathna, who will be in line to be the first woman Chief Justice of India (CJI) in September 2027, Justice Bela M Trivedi, Justice Hema Kohli, Justice CT Ravikumar, Justice MM Sundresh, and senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha. Justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Vikram Nath and Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari are also among those appointed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is currently functioning with 24 judges against a sanctioned strength of 35, including the CJI. The appointment of nine judges takes the working strength to 33.
Last week, the Supreme Court had officially announced that its Collegium has recommended to the Centre nine names. The recommendation by the Supreme Court's five-member Collegium headed by CJI NV Ramana ended the 21-month-long logjam over the appointment of new judges to the apex court. The five-member Collegium also comprises Justices UU Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.
The impasse over the appointment has led to a situation in which not a single name for the judgeship in the apex court could be recommended after the superannuation of the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi on November 17, 2019.
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