The Bombay High Court got nine additional judges on Tuesday after nine lawyers who were appointed as additional HC judges took oath.
This takes the HC judges strength to 62, which has a sanctioned strength of 94 judges.
Chief Justice Dipankar Datta sworn in the nine judges in the Central Court. This is the second time that nine judges have been sworn in on a single day. Before this, on June 5, 2017, nine judges took oath on the same day.
In February, the Supreme Court collegium had recommended 10 names as new judges for the HC judges.
However, on July 16, the central government appointed nine advocates as HC additional judges –Kishore Sant, Valmiki SA Menezes, Kamal Khata, Sharmila Deshmukh, Arun Pednekar, Sandeep Marne, Gauri Godse, Rajesh Patil and Arif Saleh Doctor.
The only recommended name that is not yet cleared is that of senior advocate Somasekar Sundaresan, a securities and regulatory expert.
With two women new woman judges, the HC now has eight women judges, which is the highest in recent years.
Since January this year, seven judges have retired from the HC.
Justice VG Bisht retired on Monday and justice AK Menon retired on July 11.
Four more judges will be retiring by the end of this year.
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