Supreme Court reaches full strength as Union government notifies appointment of two more judges

The speed with which the appointment of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Arvind Kumar has been notified is in contrast with the time taken by the government in notifying the Collegium's earlier set of recommendations to appoint Supreme Court judges.

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WITHIN 10 days of the Supreme Court Collegium's recommendation, the Union Government on Friday notified the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Rajesh Bindal and the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, Justice Arvind Kumar as judges of the Supreme Court.

The collegium comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, K.M. Joseph, M.R. Shah, Ajay Rastogi and Sanjiv Khanna, had made the recommendations to this effect on January 31. With the appointments of the duo, the Supreme Court will be functioning with its full strength of 34 judges, including the CJI.

Justice Bindal was appointed as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 22, 2006. He was appointed as Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad on October 11, 2021. He stands at serial number 2 in the combined all-India seniority among high court judges.

Justice Kumar was appointed as an additional judge of the Karnataka High Court on June 26, 2009, and as a permanent judge on December 7, 2012. He was elevated as Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat on October 13, 2021. He stands at serial number 26 in the combined all-India seniority of high court judges.

The speed with which the appointment of Justices Bindal and Kumar has been notified is in contrast with the time taken by the government in notifying earlier set of recommendations to appoint Supreme Court judges.

It took over one month to appoint the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, Justice Pankaj Mithal; the Chief Justice of Patna High Court, Justice Sanjay Karol; the Chief Justice of Manipur High Court, Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar; the Patna High Court judge, Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah; and the Allahabad High Court judge, Justice Manoj Misra, as Supreme Court judges. The Collegium had recommended their names on December 13 last year but the appointments were made only on February 4 .

In the case of Justice Dipankar Datta, the government took over two months to notify his appointment as judge of the Supreme Court. The collegium had recommended his elevation to the Supreme Court bench on September 26 last year, but his appointment was cleared only on December 13.