New Delhi, Jun 2 (PTI) Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Tuesday administered the oath of office to five new judges of the Supreme Court, taking the strength of judges at the top court to 37, the highest ever. The CJI administered the oath of office to justices Sheel Nagu, Shree Chandrashekhar, Sanjeev Sachdeva, Arun Palli, and V Mohana. The swearing-in ceremony was held in the apex court premises. The strength of judges at the apex court will now be 37, one short of the upgraded sanctioned strength of 38. The Centre on Monday cleared the appointment of Justice Nagu, the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Chandrashekhar, the chief justice of the Bombay High Court, Justice Sachdeva, the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Palli, the chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, and senior advocate Mohana as top court judges.

The government last month promulgated an ordinance amending a law to increase the sanctioned strength of the apex court from 34 to 38, including the CJI. Two sitting Supreme Court judges -- Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice J K Maheshwari -- are set to retire on June 16 and June 28. The five new names were recommended by the apex court Collegium on May 27 and the appointments came through in four days. Justice Mohana became only the second woman in the country to be directly elevated to the apex court from the Bar after Justice Indu Malhotra in 2018.

She will be one of the two serving women judges in the Supreme Court, the other one being Justice B V Nagarathna, who has been a judge at the top court since August 31, 2021. Justice Nagarathna is next in line to become the Chief Justice of India. She will be the CJI for more than a month in 2027. Born on January 1, 1965, Justice Nagu was enrolled as an advocate in October 1987. He was appointed an additional judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on May 27, 2011, and a permanent judge there on May 23, 2013.

Justice Nagu was appointed the acting chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on May 25, 2024. He took oath as the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 9, 2024. He was part of the Supreme Court-appointed in-house committee which conducted an enquiry into the allegations of discovery of burnt wads of cash at the residence of then Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma here in March last year. Justice Shree Chandrashekhar was born on May 25, 1965, and completed his LLB from the Campus Law Centre of the Delhi University in 1993.

He was appointed an additional judge of the Jharkhand High Court on January 17, 2013, and as permanent judge there on June 27, 2014. He was the acting chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court from December 29, 2023, to July 4, 2024, and was transferred to the Rajasthan High Court on July 5, 2024. On September 5, 2025, he was elevated to the post of the chief justice of the Bombay High Court. Justice Chandrashekhar was part of the three-member committee constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to probe the grounds for the removal of Justice Varma.

Born on December 26, 1964, Justice Sachdeva obtained the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1988 from the Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi. He enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi on August 1, 1988. He was designated as a senior advocate by the Delhi High Court in July 2011. Justice Sachdeva was elevated to the post of an additional judge of the Delhi High Court with effect from April 17, 2013, and made a permanent judge there on March 18, 2015. He was transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court with effect from May 30, 2024.  Justice Sachdeva was sworn in as the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on July 17, 2025.

Born on September 18, 1964, Justice Palli completed his Bachelor of Laws from Panjab University in 1988. He was designated as a senior advocate on April 26, 2007. Justice Palli was elevated to the bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on December 28, 2013. He was appointed the chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court and took oath of office there on April 16, 2025. Justice Mohana, 59, graduated from the Coimbatore Law College in 1988 and has been practising as a lawyer since then. The Supreme Court designated her as a senior advocate in 2015.

/Agencies