Central govt clears appointment of three Supreme Court judges; likely to take oath today

The Central government has cleared the appointment of Justices Satish Chandra Sharma, Augustine George Masih and Sandeep Mehta as judges of the Supreme Court.

The three judges will take oath on Thursday. With their appointments, the strength of the Supreme Court will rise to its full capacity of 34 judges.

Justices Sharma, Masih and Mehta are currently Chief Justices of the High Courts of Delhi, Rajasthan and Gauhati.

Justice Sharma’s parent High Court is the Madhya Pradesh High Court, while Justices Masih and Mehta hail from the Punjab & Haryana and Rajasthan High Courts respectively.

The recent resolution, signed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant, reveals that the factors that weighed with the collegium while making its selection were the seniority of judges within their parent high courts as well as overall seniority, and their merit, performance, and integrity. Besides this, another crucial factor in making this determination was the need to ensure fair representation to high courts across the country, inclusion of minorities, and members of backward or marginalised communities, and to enhance gender diversity.