PRESIDENT Ram Nath Kovind Thursday appointed nine judges to the Supreme Court including three women judges. This takes the Supreme Court's working strength to 33 judges against the sanctioned strength of 34.
The new appointees are:
Chief Justice of Karnataka AS Oka; Chief Justice of Gujarat Vikram Nath; Chief Justice of Sikkim JK Maheshwari; Chief Justice of Telangana Hima Kohli; Karnataka High Court judge BV Nagarathna; Justice CT Ravikumar from Kerala High Court; Justice MM Sundaresh from Madras High Court, Justice Bela Trivedi from Gujarat High Court and senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General(ASG) PS Narasimha.
Justices Vikram Nath, BV Nagarathna and PS Narishma will be in line to become the Chief Justice of India from 2027 onwards.
Justice Nagarathna will be the first woman CJI to be appointed in 2027 if the rule of seniority continues to be followed.
The Supreme Court Collegium comprising CJI NV Ramana and Justices UU Lalit, AM Khanwilker, DY Chandrachud, and L Nageswara Rao made the recommendations for the appointment of nine judges on August 18. The appointments to the apex court had been frozen since August 28, 2019.