New Delhi: Four new judges — the Chief Justices of Madhya Pradesh, Allahabad and Kerala High Courts and senior advocate L. Nageswara Rao — were on Friday sworn-in as judges of the Supreme Court by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur at the First Court Hall.
The three Chief Justices are Justice A.M. Khanwilkar from Madhya Pradesh, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud from Allahabad and Justice Ashok Bhushan from the Kerala High Court. While Justices Khanwilkar and Chandrachud belong to Maharashtra, Justice Bhushan belongs to Uttar Pradesh.
Justice L.Nageswara Rao hails from Andhra Pradesh. There are three judges in SC representing Maharashtra — Justices S.A. Bobde, Rohinton Nariman and Uday Lalit. The appointment of Justice Khanwilkar and Justice Chandrachud takes the number of judges from the state to five.
Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud, who is the son of former Chief Justice of India Y.V. Chandrachud, will become Chief Justice of India in 2022. Though sons of several apex court judges had become judges, it is for the first time that the son of former CJI will also become the CJI.
The present strength of judges in the apex court is 25 as against the sanctioned strength of 31. With the elevation of three High Court Chief Justices and a senior lawyer the strength will go upto 29.
Five judges, Justices Ibrahim Kalifulla, C. Nagappan, V. Gopala Gowda, Anil Dave and Shiva Kirti Singh, are due to retire during the course of this year and the strength will come down to 24 if no fresh appointment is made.
