New Delhi: Three judges, including a woman,
were on Tuesday sworn in as Supreme Court judges, raising the
strength of women in the highest judiciary to two for the
first time.
Justices Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, Ranjana Prakash
Desai and Jagdish Singh Khehar were administered the oath of
office by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, taking the total strength
of judges at the apex court to 29 from the present 26.
While Justice Mukhopadhya was the Chief Justice of
Gujarat High Court, Justice Desai was a judge of the Bombay
High Court and Justice Khehar Chief Justice of Karnataka High
Court.
Though the apex court got its first woman judge in 1989,
with the appointment of Justice Desai, it will be for the
first time that the apex court will be having two women judges
together on the bench. The other judge is Justice Gyan Sudha
Misra.
The apex court at present has a sanctioned strength of 31
judges including the CJI, but currently it is having only 26
judges, out of which four are scheduled to retire by October
15. So, even after these three appointments, there would still
be six vacancies.
Going by the seniority of the present apex court judges,
Justice Khehar, who was sworn in today is being seen as a
potential first Sikh Chief Justice of India after the
retirement of Justice T S Thakur on January 4, 2017.Justice
Thakur is likely to take the reins of the top judge`s post in
September 2014.
PTI
