Five sworn in as Supreme Court judges, taking top court to near-full strength

FOur heights margaret court chief justices and senior counsel V Mohana were sworn in as book of judges of the sublime Court on Tuesday, taking the apex court to near-full strength and marking one of the most significant rounds of appointments in recent years following the expansion of the court’s sanctioned strength.Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant administered the oath of office to justices Sheel Nagu, Shree Chandrashekhar, Sanjeev Sachdeva, Arun Palli, and senior advocate V Mohana.The appointments were notified by the Union government on Monday, four days after the Supreme Court collegium recommended their elevation. Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the appointments through a post on X.The names were recommended on May 27 by the Supreme Court collegium led by CJI Kant and comprising justices Vikram Nath, JK Maheshwari, BV Nagarathna and MM Sundresh.The appointments came 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 move was aimed at addressing mounting pendency, which has crossed 92,000 cases, and facilitating the regular constitution of larger benches.With the swearing-in of the five new judges, the apex court’s working strength has risen to 36 judges, excluding the CJI, leaving only one vacancy against the sanctioned strength of 37 judges.The latest round of appointments reflects the collegium’s attempt to balance regional representation, seniority, merit, and gender diversity in the composition of the country’s highest court.Justice Nagu, who was serving as chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court, began his judicial career in the Madhya Pradesh high court and was elevated as a judge there in 2011. He was appointed chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court in 2024 and has handled a wide range of constitutional, service, and administrative law matters.Justice Chandrashekhar was serving as chief justice of the Bombay high court at the time of his elevation. He was appointed as a judge of the Jharkhand high court in 2013 and later served as its acting chief justice before being transferred to head the Bombay high court.Justice Sachdeva, who was recently appointed chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court after a long tenure as a judge of the Delhi high court, has dealt extensively with constitutional, commercial and criminal law disputes. Before his elevation to the bench in 2013, he had a substantial practice before the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court.Justice Palli, who headed the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high court, enrolled as an advocate in 1988 and practised primarily before the Punjab and Haryana high court. Designated as a senior advocate in 2007, he was elevated as a judge in 2013 and later appointed chief justice.The appointment of Mohana is significant as it increases the representation of women on the Supreme Court bench. Until now, Justice Nagarathna was the only woman judge in the apex court.Mohana is a distinguished member of the Supreme Court Bar and only the second woman lawyer to be elevated directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court after Justice Indu Malhotra in 2018. A graduate of Coimbatore Law College’s first five-year law course batch in 1988, Mohana began her career under advocate M Panchapakesan before moving to 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, she established an independent practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi high court, and several tribunals and commissions. During her career, she has appeared alongside some of the country’s leading legal luminaries, including Kapil Sibal, K K Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Arun Jaitley and T R Andhyarujina. She was designated as a senior advocate by the Supreme Court in April 2015 and has also served as a panel lawyer for the Union government.The appointments come at a crucial time for the Supreme Court, which is expected to witness a series of retirements over the coming months. Justice Pankaj Mithal is due to retire this week, followed by Justice JK Maheshwari later this month, Justice Sanjay Karol in August, and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma in November.The fresh inductions are expected to help stabilise the court’s working strength and improve its capacity to deal with rising pendency while enabling more regular sittings of constitution benches during the tenure of CJI Kant, who is due to retire in February 2027.