President Notifies Appointment Of Nine New Supreme Court Judges
The names recommended includes Justice BV Nagarathna of the Karnataka High Court, who could become India's first woman CJI.
The President of India on Thursday notified the appointment of nine new judges to the Supreme Court, according to the website of the Ministry of Law & Justice.
The names were recommended last week by the Supreme Court Collegium for elevation as judges of the top court. The list includes four high court chief justices, four high court judges and a senior advocate, according to the resolution uploaded on the Supreme Court website.
The names include Karnataka High Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna, who could become the first female Chief Justice of India in 2027. Supreme Court chief justices are appointed on the basis of seniority.
The nine new judges who will join the top court bench include:
Karnataka High Court Chief Justice AS Oka
Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Vikram Nath
Sikkim High Court Chief Justice JK Maheshwari
Telangana High Court Chief Justice Hima Kohli
Kerala High Court judge Justice CT Ravikumar
Madras High Court judge Justice MM Sundresh
Gujarat High Court judge Justice Bela M Trivedi
Karnataka High Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna
Senior Advocate PS Narasimha
Narasimha, a member of the Supreme Court bar, has served as the Additional Solicitor General of India.
The latest set of appointments have come after a gap of over a year and at a time when a third of the sanctioned posts in the Supreme Court are vacant.
It has been widely reported that during the year the collegium was deadlocked over the issue of elevation of Justice Akil Kureshi, chief justice of Tripura High Court, to the apex court. Eventually, Chief Justice SA Bobde retired without having made any appointment recommendations in his 14-month tenure. To be clear, the Supreme Court has never confirmed any reason for the lack of appointments nor made any public statement about a lack of consensus or impasse between judges.
The current collegium includes Chief Justice of India Justice NV Ramana, Justice UU Lalit, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice L Nageswara Rao.
Justice Rao was the latest addition to the collegium after Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman retired as a judge of the top court on Aug. 12.