SC gets 2 more judges; top court to function with full strength of 34

PTI, Feb 10, 2023, 6:02 PM IST

New Delhi: The government on Friday elevated two high court chief justices to the Supreme court, taking it to its full strength of 34 judges after a gap of nine months.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to announce the fresh appointments to the top court and extended his best wishes to them.

Justice Rajesh Bindal, Chief Justice, Allahabad HC and Justice Aravind Kumar, Chief Justice, Gujarat HC are likely to take oath as judges of the Supreme Court in the next two days, sources familiar with the process of appointing judges to the higher judiciary said.

Once they take the oath, the top court will achieve its full strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.

Their names were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on January 31.

The Department of Justice in the Union law ministry issued separate notifications announcing their appointments.

While all six members of the Collegium, led by CJI DY Chandrachud, were unanimous in recommending the name of Justice Bindal, Justice K M Joseph had a reservation about the name of Justice Kumar, according to a resolution uploaded on the apex court website.

After the elevation of these judges, acting chief justices –Pritinker Diwaker and Sonia Giridhar Gokani– were appointed to the Allahabad and the Gujarat High Courts respectively.

Both are senior-most judges in their respective high courts.

Born on April 16, 1961, Justice Bindal was to demit office in April this year on attaining the age of 62 years. But following his elevation to the Supreme Court, he now has three more years. HC judges retire at 62 while SC judges retire at 65 years.

Justice Kumar was born on July 14, 1962, and would turn 61 in July this year.

Earlier this week, Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, Manipur High Court Chief Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, Patna High Court judge Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Allahabad High Court judge Manoj Misra took oath as Supreme Court judges after their elevation last Saturday.

Between May and July this year, six judges of the apex court will demit office upon attaining the age of 65 years.

On earlier occasions, the apex court had its full strength twice in 2019 and for a brief while in 2022.

The top court had full strength between May 25 to August 27 in 2019 when its sanctioned strength was 31. The second time the apex court attained its full strength in 2019 was between September 23 and November 17. The sanctioned strength of SC had gone up to 34 by then.

The sanctioned strength of the top court was increased from 31 to 34 judges, including the CJI, in August 2019 by an Act of Parliament.

On May 9, 2022 when Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala took oath as Supreme Court judges, the apex court once again attained maximum strength. But on the evening of May 10, following the retirement of Justice Vineet Saran, the working strength came down to 33.