CJI Chandrachud administers oath to three new Supreme Court judges

This year will also see a total of nine retirements with Justice SK Kaul set to retire in December, while eight judges have retired till November

Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on November 9 administered the oath of office to three judges of the Supreme Court.

The names of Justices Satish Chandra Sharma, Augustine George Masih, and Sandeep Mehta were cleared for appointment by the Union government on November 8. The collegium had recommended their names for Supreme Court judgeship on November 6. The recommendations were pursuant to the retirement of Justices Ramasubramanian, Krishna Murari and Ravindra Bhat over the last five months.

Among the newly-appointed judges, Sharma was Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, while Masih and Mehta were Chief Justices of Rajasthan and Guwahati High Courts, respectively.

As per the resolution, the judgments delivered by Satish Chandra Sharma, the current Chief Justice of Delhi HC, deal with various branches of law and stand testimony to his legal acumen and competence.

Regarding Justice Masih, the Collegium notes that he has expertise in constitutional, service, labour and civil matters. According to the resolution Justice Masih is number 7 in seniority in the list of all India judges and is the senior most judge from Punjab and Haryana HC. The resolution mentions that he is from minority community.

The resolution points out that Sandeep Mehta hails from the Rajasthan High Court and emphasises there is no representation from his court in SC. The resolution also notes that he has a long adjudicatory experience in the courts and his appointment to SC will be a value addition in terms of his acquired knowledge and experience.

With these appointments, the Supreme Court will function at its full sanctioned strength of 34 judges. The calendar year has seen 14 judges appointed to the apex court in 11 months, all of them recommended by the CJI Chandrachud-led collegium. The last set of appointments was made in July 2023, wherein Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Venkatnarayana Bhatti were sworn in as judges.

This year will also see a total of nine retirements with Justice SK Kaul set to retire in December, while eight judges have retired till November.

The collegium currently comprises CJI DY Chandrachud along with Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and Surya Kant.