Supreme Court to have full strength of 34 judges

New Delhi: With two high court chief justices being elevated to the top court on Friday, the Supreme Court will now have the full strength of 34 judges.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to announce the fresh appointments to the top court and extended his best wishes to them. The development has come after a tiff between the Supreme Court collegium and the government over the recommendations.

Names recommended by collegium on January 31

Allahabad HC Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Gujarat HC Chief Justice Aravind Kumar are likely to take oath as judges of the Supreme Court in the next two days. Their names were recommended by the collegium on January 31. The department of justice in the Union law ministry issued separate notifications announcing their appointments.

Last week, five judges were appointed to the Supreme Court. While all six members of the collegium, led by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, were unanimous in recommending the name of Justice Bindal, Justice K.M. Joseph had reservation about the name of Justice Kumar, according to a resolution uploaded on the apex court website.

Last Saturday, Rajasthan HC Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal, Patna HC Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, Manipur HC Chief Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar, Patna HC judge Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Allahabad HC judge Manoj Misra were elevated to the apex court.

Between May and July this year, six judges of the apex court will demit office upon attaining the age of 65 years.