ON Monday, the Union Government notified the appointment of three judges to the Supreme Court, raising the functioning strength of the Court to 37 against the sanctioned strength of 38, including the Chief Justice of India.
Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court Sunita Agarwal, Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, and Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court Aparesh Kumar Singh were appointed as judges of the Supreme Court yesterday. They are slated to take the oath later today.
On 28 September this year, the Supreme Court Collegium, comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Vikram Nath, B.V. Nagarathna, M.M. Sundresh and P.S. Narasimha, recommended the appointment of these three Chief Justices as judges of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court will now have four judges from the Allahabad High Court. Justice Vikram Nath, next in line to become the Chief Justice of India, is from the Allahabad High Court. Justice Manoj Mishra also hails from the same High Court. Justice Sunita Agarwal, who had been functioning as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, and Justice D.K. Upadhyaya, who had been functioning as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, also belong to the Allahabad High Court. The Allahabad High Court has a sanctioned strength of 160 judges.
With the appointment of Justice Agarwal, the Supreme Court will have three women judges, the others being Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice V. Mohana.
Justice Agarwal will retire on 29 April 2031.
Justice Upadhyaya will retire on 15 June 2030.
Justice Singh will retire on 6 July 2030.
With the appointment of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, there will be two judges from Jharkhand in the Supreme Court, the other being Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, who was appointed to the Supreme Court earlier this year. The Jharkhand High Court, with a sanctioned strength of just 25 judges, now has two judges in the Supreme Court.
In contrast, the Bombay High Court, with a sanctioned strength of 94 judges, has only two judges in the Supreme Court, namely Justices P.B. Varale and Atul S. Chandurkar. On the other hand, the Gujarat High Court, with a sanctioned strength of just 52 judges, has three judges in the Supreme Court.
The Kerala High Court, with a sanctioned strength of 47 judges, has only one judge in the Supreme Court, Justice K. Vinod Chandran.
The data shows the under-representation of some High Courts and the over-representation of a few others in the Supreme Court. Moreover, there has been no representation from the Orissa High Court since 2018. There is also no representation from the Uttarakhand High Court. The same is the case with the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The High Courts of Sikkim, Tripura and Meghalaya also have no representation in the Supreme Court.
