SC strength reaches 34 with 4 new judges

According to separate law ministry notifications, justices Krishna Murari, SR Bhat, V Ramasubramanian and Hrishikesh Roy were appointed as judges of the top court. The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended their names to the government last month.

Four new judges were appointed to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, taking its strength to 34, the highest-ever.

With a huge backlog of cases in the top court, the government had recently increased the strength of its judges from 31 to 34, including the Chief Justice of India. (HT FILE)

According to separate law ministry notifications, justices Krishna Murari, SR Bhat, V Ramasubramanian and Hrishikesh Roy were appointed as judges of the top court. The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended their names to the government last month.

Justices V Ramasubramanian and Krishna Murari head the Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and Haryana high courts respectively.

Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Hrishikesh Roy head the Rajasthan and Kerala high courts respectively.

With a huge backlog of cases in the top court, the government had recently increased the strength of its judges from 31 to 34, including the Chief Justice of India.

The sanctioned strength of SC judges was increased days after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the number of judges in the top court.

Due to paucity of judges, the required number of constitution benches to decide important cases involving questions of law were not being formed, the CJI said.