The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Tuesday administered the oath of office to nine judges in a ceremony that will be telecast Live.
In another first in the history of the Supreme Court, nine judges will join the apex court in one go.
The President appointed the nine judges to the court on August 26. The current strength of judges in the Supreme Court is 24, against the sanctioned strength of 34.
The nine judges included three women – Justice BV Nagarathna from the Karnataka High Court, Telangana High Court Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Bela Trivedi of Gujarat High Court.
The following is the list of judges who took oath to office in the ceremony administered by CJI NV Ramana.
Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka
Justice Bela Madhurya Trivedi
Justice CT Ravikumar
Justice Hima Kohli
Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari
Justice MM Sundresh
Justice PS Narasimha
Justice Venkataramiah Nagarathna
Justice Vikram Nath
Justice Abhay S Oka, known for his rulings during the COVID-19 pandemic
Justice Abhay S Oka is the senior-most high court judge and presently the Chief Justice of Karnataka High court.
Justice Oka, who is originally from the Bombay High Court, was transferred to the Karnataka HC in 2019. Justice Oka started his practice in the Thane District Court. He has practised in the chambers of his father, Shreeniwas W Oka, and thereafter under VP Tipnis, a former Judge of the Bombay High Court and former Lokayukta.
He was elevated as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court in August 2003. He was made a permanent judge in November 2005.
Justice Bela Trivedi, the only judge in SC who has risen from the ranks to the apex court
Justice Bela Madhurya Trivedi presently serves as the Judge of the Gujarat High Court. She was elevated as a judge in Gujarat high court in 2006.
She supersedes two of her colleagues from Gujarat High court, Justice DN Patel, serving as Chief Justice, Delhi High Court and Justice Akil Kureshi, Chief Justice, Manipur High Court.
Following the stalemate in collegium over the elevation of Justices DN Patel and Akil Kureshi, Justice Bela Trivedi’s name was considered, and she brought with herself experience of working in the lower judiciary. With her, in the Supreme Court, she will be the only judge who has risen from the ranks to the top court.
Justice CT Ravikumar, a bench clerk’s son who rose to become SC judge
Justice CT Ravikumar is the second most senior judge of the Kerala HC was sworn in as additional judge of Kerala High Court on January 5, 2009.
He was appointed as a permanent judge with effect from December 15, 2010.
Ravikumar bid an emotional farewell to his parent High Court on Friday.
Bar and Bench has reported that, In his farewell speech, Justice Ravikumar fondly remembered and expressed gratitude to his late father who had worked as a bench clerk to a magistrate.
“At this moment of happiness I prostate with the memories of my parents, father late Sri K Devan, who was a Bench Clerk in Judicial first Class Magistrate Court, Changanassery, mother late Smt. Saraswathy and also my late elder sister, late Smt. Radhamani, whose blessings from the heavenly abode takes me to this position,” he said teary-eyed.
Justice Ravikumar is the fifth judge of the Kerala High Court to be elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court without occupying the position of Chief Justice of a High Court, Bar and Bench has reported.
Justice Hima Kohli who gets elevated to SC three weeks before she retires as a HC Judge
Justice Kohli is presently the Chief justice of the Telangana High Court, and the first woman judge to hold that office. Prior to that, she served as a Judge of the Delhi High Court.
She is getting elevated to the Supreme court just three weeks before she will be due to retire as a high court judge.
Justice Kohli was appointed as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Delhi on May 29, 2006, and took oath as a Permanent Judge on August 29, 2007.
Justice Vikram Nath, the first Chief Justice of a HC to live stream his court proceedings on YouTube during Covid-19
Originally from Allahabad High court, Justice Vikram Nath is presently serving as the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court. He has been elevated to the top court under the Allahabad high court quota which fell vacant recently with the retirement of Justice Ashok Bhushan.
He is the first Chief Justice of a High Court in India to live stream proceedings of his court on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Justice Vikram Nath, the Gujarat High court has also started live streaming of proceedings of other courts. He practised as a lawyer at Allahabad High Court for a period of 17 years before being elevated to the position of a High Court Judge.
Nath became an Additional Judge on September 24, 2004. On February 2, 2006, he took oath as a permanent judge. Later, on September 10, 2019, he was appointed as the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court.
Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, the Chief Justice of Sikkim HC
Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, who is originally from Madhya Pradesh High court, is the Chief Justice of Sikkim High court. He has also held the office of the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court.
In 2020, the Supreme court collegium transferred Justice Maheshwari out of Andhra High court after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y Jagan Mohan Reddy levelled allegations against him of attempting to destabilise, and topple his government at the bidding of a Supreme Court judge.
He supersedes Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High court, who is his senior from Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Justice PS Narasimha, known for his deep knowledge of Indian traditional intellectual traditions
Practising senior advocate at the Supreme Court, PS Narsimha has been the Additional Solicitor General of India. He represented Ram Lalla Virajman in the Babri-Ramjanam Bhoomi dispute.
Narasimha is known for his deep knowledge of Indian traditional intellectual traditions. He was one of the advocates representing the Hindu side who was felicitated by VHP and RSS at Ayodhya after the verdict.
