Supreme Court gets 5 new judges

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 17

The Supreme Court on Friday got five new judges, taking its strength to 28, which is still three short of its sanctioned strength of 31.

The new judges were administered oath of office by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar at 10.30 am.

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Those elevated to the Supreme Court are Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Naveen Sinha, Kerala High Court Chief Justice Mohan M Shantanagouder, Chhattisgarh High Court Chief Justice Dipak Gupta and Karnataka High Court Judge S Abdul Nazeer.

The top court–which has almost 60,000 cases pending–had been functioning with only 23 judges. The appointments were stuck due to differences in the collegium as Justice J Chelameswar raised the issue of lack of transparency in its functioning.

President Pranab Mukherjee had signed the Warrants of Appointment for the five judges earlier this week. Four of the judges elevated to the top court were chief justices of state high courts while one was a high court senior judge.

Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant are due to retire later this year.

Justice Khehar had recently indicated that the stalemate between the judiciary and the government over the memorandum of procedure for judges’ appointment might end soon.