New Delhi: The government Friday elevated two high court chief justices to the Supreme Court, taking it to its full strength of 34 judges after a gap of nine months. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to announce the fresh appointments to the Supreme Court and extended his best wishes to them.
Justice Rajesh Bindal, Chief Justice, Allahabad HC and Justice Aravind Kumar, Chief Justice, Gujarat HC are likely to take oath as judges of the Supreme Court in the next two days, sources familiar with the process of appointing judges to the higher judiciary said. Once they take the oath, the Supreme Court will achieve its full strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India. Their names were recommended January 31 by the Supreme Court Collegium.
The Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry issued separate notifications announcing their appointments.
While all six members of the Collegium, led by CJI DY Chandrachud, were unanimous in recommending the name of Justice Bindal, Justice KM Joseph had a reservation about the name of Justice Kumar, according to a resolution uploaded on the apex court website.
After the elevation of these judges, acting chief justices – Pritinker Diwaker and Sonia Giridhar Gokani – were appointed to the Allahabad and the Gujarat High Courts respectively. Both are senior-most judges in their respective high courts.
Born April 16, 1961, Justice Bindal was to demit office in April this year on attaining the age of 62 years. But following his elevation to the Supreme Court, he now has three more years. HC judges retire at 62 while Supreme Court judges retire at 65 years. Justice Kumar was born July 14, 1962, and will turn 61 in July this year.
Between May and July this year, six judges of the Supreme court will demit office upon attaining the age of 65 years.
On earlier occasions, the apex court had its full strength twice in 2019 and for a brief while in 2022.