Centre clears 5 Supreme Court appointments after expansion of sanctioned strength

THe unification authorities on mon notified the fitting of quaternary high court chief justices and senior advocate V Mohana as judges of the Supreme Court, four days after the apex court collegium recommended their elevation, paving the way for one of the most significant rounds of appointments to the top court in recent years following the expansion of its sanctioned strength.Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the appointments through a post on X. “In exercise of the power conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President of India, after consultation with Chief Justice of India, is pleased to appoint the following as Judges of the Supreme Court of India. I convey my best wishes to them,” Meghwal’s post stated.The appointments notified by the Centre are of justices Sheel Nagu, Shree Chandrashekhar, Sanjeev Sachdeva, Arun Palli and senior advocate V Mohana. The names were recommended on May 27 by the Supreme Court collegium led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.The five appointees are expected to be sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court on Tuesday.The appointments come days after the Union government increased the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court from 33 to 37 judges, excluding the CJI, through the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026. The May 16 move was aimed at addressing mounting pendency, which has crossed 92,000 cases, and facilitating regular constitution benches.The latest appointments will take the court’s strength to 36 judges, apart from the CJI, with just one position remaining vacant.With these appointments, the collegium, also comprising justices Vikram Nath, JK Maheshwari, BV Nagarathna and MM Sundresh, sought to balance regional representation, judicial seniority, merit and gender diversity in the composition of the apex court.Among the newly appointed judges, Justice Sheel Nagu currently heads the Punjab and Haryana high court. Originally from the Madhya Pradesh high court, he was elevated as a judge there in 2011 before being appointed chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court in 2024. He is known for his work in constitutional, service, and administrative law matters.Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, who has been the chief justice of the Bombay high court, began his judicial career in the Jharkhand high court and was elevated as a judge there in 2013. He took over as chief justice of the Bombay high court last year after serving as acting chief justice of the Jharkhand high court.Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, who was originally a judge of the Delhi high court and recently appointed chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court, has handled several important constitutional, commercial, and criminal law matters during his tenure on the bench. Before elevation as a judge in 2013, he had extensive practice in the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court.Justice Arun Palli, who presently heads the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high court, began practice at the Punjab and Haryana high court in 1988 and was designated senior advocate in 2007. Elevated as a judge in 2013, he dealt with constitutional, labour, civil, and criminal matters before being appointed chief justice last year.The appointment of senior advocate V Mohana assumes particular significance as it will add another woman judge to the Supreme Court, which currently has only one woman judge, Justice BV Nagarathna.A leading member of the Supreme Court Bar, Mohana graduated from Coimbatore Law College in 1988 as part of the institution’s first five-year law course batch. She initially trained under advocate M Panchapakesan before moving to New Delhi, where she worked with former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra and senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan.After clearing the advocate-on-record examination in 1996, Mohana began independent practice in the Supreme Court, the Delhi high court, and other forums, including the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. Over the years, she appeared alongside several leading legal luminaries, including Kapil Sibal, KK Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Arun Jaitley, and TR Andhyarujina. She was designated as a senior advocate by the full court of the Supreme Court in April 2015 and has also served as a panel lawyer for the Union government.Her elevation is also notable because she will become only the second woman lawyer to be elevated directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court after Justice Indu Malhotra in 2018.The present round of appointments comes at a crucial juncture for the apex court, which is not only adjusting to its expanded strength but is also facing a series of impending retirements.Justice Pankaj Mithal is due to retire on June 6, followed by Justice J K Maheshwari on June 28, Justice Sanjay Karol on August 28 and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on November 29. The appointments are expected to stabilise the court’s working strength during the tenure of CJI Surya Kant, who demits office in February 2027.