5 new SC judges take oath; strength rises to record 37

Key Takeaways

• NEW DELHI: Surya Kant on Tuesday administered oath to five new Supreme Court judges — Justices Sheel Nagu, Sree Chandrashekhar, Sanjeev Sachdeva, Arun Palli and V S Mohana — taking the working strength of SC judges to a record 37 with one vacancy.The entire process — involving the recommendation of names by the five-member -led collegium, vetting of names by govt and issuance of warrants of appointment by the President — was completed within a week.
• The collegium recommended the names on May 27, warrants of appointment were issued on June 1 after govt cleared them, and the new judges took oath on Tuesday.Justice Nagu became a judge of Madhya Pradesh HC in May 2011 and was appointed chief justice of Punjab and Haryana HC on July 9, 2024.
• As an SC judge, he would have a three-and-a-half-year tenure.
• Justice Nagu was part of the in-house committee panel inquiring into the discovery of partially burnt notes from the residence of then Delhi HC judge Yashwant Varma in March last year.Bombay HC CJ Chandrashekhar, who had become a judge of his parent HC in Jharkhand in Jan 2013, will have a tenure of less than four years in SC.
• He was part of the Lok Sabha speaker-appointed committee inquiring into the alleged misconduct of Justice Varma.MP HC CJ Sachdeva, who had become a judge of Delhi HC in April 2013, will have a tenure of three and a half years.