CJI impressed by speedy clearance of 4 SC judges

NEW DELHI: Justices Hemant Gupta, R Subhash Reddy, M R Shah and Ajay Rastogi were Friday sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court, taking its strength to 28.

The swearing-in ceremony started at 10:30 am in court number 1 of the apex court and Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi administered the oath of office to the four judges.

The president had Thursday given his assent to the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium for elevating Gupta, Reddy, Shah and Rastogi, who were chief justices of different high courts, as apex court judges.

The apex court has a sanctioned strength of 31. With the elevation of these four new judges, the strength has risen from 24 to 28.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said he was impressed with how quickly the appointments were made. "The recommendation (by the collegium) was sent at 11 am on Wednesday to the Law Ministry. I heard that the medical examination of the four judges was conducted on the same evening itself. I was in awe," Chief Justice Gogoi said.

The Chief Justice also said that 14 benches of two judges each would sit on Mondays and Fridays for faster disposal of cases to curb pendency.

Soon after taking over as chief justice, Ranjan Gogoi had said clearing the pendency in the Supreme Court was a top priority for him and that he "had a plan" on how to do it. He took two key measures for this purpose. First, he did away with urgent mentions in the Supreme Court, except in emergencies such as cases involving hanging or demolitions. Second, he urged judges not to take leave unless it is urgent and asked them not to skip working days to attend seminars.

He said that the Supreme Court will now translate all its judgments into Hindi initially and later to other regional languages.

Also, Supreme Court judgements, which are voluminous, will be made simple. The crux of the judgement in one or two pages will be made available for the common man to understand.