Supreme Court Gets 5 New Judges, Now Two Short Of It’s Full Strength Of 34

New Delhi: Five judges were appointed to the Supreme Court on Saturday, taking the total number of judges in the apex court to 32, two short of the full strength.
The appointment of judges was cleared after completion of the process of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and the 25 high courts was recebtly initiated . Law Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted to announce the appointment of Justice Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice, Rajasthan High Court; Justice Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice, Patna High Court; Justice P V Sanjay Kumar, Chief Justice, Manipur High Court; Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah of Patna High Court; and Justice Manoj Misra of Allahabad High Court as apex court judges.
Their names were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on December 13 last year. The President signed their warrants of appointment on Saturday.
The Centre had on Friday assured the Supreme Court that the Collegium’s recommendation for the appointment of five judges in the apex court will be cleared soon.
Attorney General R Venkataramani had told a bench of justices S K Kaul and A S Oka that the warrant of appointments of these five names is expected to be issued shortly. Once the five take oath early next week, the strength of the apex court will go up to 32 judges. At present the top court is functioning with 27 judges, including the Chief Justice of India. Its sanctioned strength, including the CJI, is 34. On January 31, the Supreme Court collegium had recommended two more names for elevation as top court judges — Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar. Once they are appointed and take oath, the top court will have its full strength of 34.