In a first, nine judges were administered oath as the judges of the Supreme Court by CJI NV Ramana on Tuesday. This was the first instance of the apex court wherein nine judges took the oath of office together.
The five-member Supreme Court Collegium, headed by CJI Ramana, had recommended nine names for appointment as judges of the top court on August 17 after a 21-month-long impasse over the appointment of new judges to the Supreme Court.
The nine judges sworn-in as the judges of the Supreme Court includes two judges from Gujarat – Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bela Trivedi. Besides them, Chief Justice of the Karnataka HC – Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Chief Justice of the Sikkim HC – Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, Chief Justice of the Telangana HC – Hima Kohli, Judge of the Karnataka HC – BV Nagarathna, Judge of the Kerala HC – CT Ravikumar, Judge of the Madras HC – MM Sundresh and a senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General – PS Narasimha took the oath of the office.
With this swearing-in, the strength of the apex court rose to 33, including the CJI, out of the sanctioned strength of 34, leaving just one vacant seat for Supreme Court judge. However, one of the judges who was not included in the list, despite the seniority, was Chief Justice of the Tripura HC – Akil Kureshi. Reportedly, it has been said to be a reason for the impasse over the appointment for vacancies of the apex court judges.
Read: Why Justice Akil Kureshi couldn’t make it to Supreme Court despite his seniority?
Traditionally, the oath of office to new judges is administered in the CJI’s courtroom, but this time the ceremony was held in the auditorium of the Supreme Court’s additional building complex.
