5 new SC judges to take oath today

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is all set to get five new judges on Monday when three chief justices — Justice Pankaj Mithal, Justice Sanjay Karol and P V Sanjay Kumar — of high courts of Rajasthan, Patna and Manipur respectively will take oath alongside two other senior high court judges.

Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah of the Patna High Court and Justice Manoj Misra of the Allahabad High Court will also be administered oath of office by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) as apex court judges in a ceremony to be held at the court’s auditorium in its new building complex.

The total strength of the Supreme Court will now be 32 against the sanctioned strength of 34. The senior most among the five judges, whose names were officially announced by the Centre on Saturday, is Justice Mithal whose parent cadre is the Allahabad High Court.

He was serving as the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court since October 14, last year. Born on June 17, 1961, Justice Mithal is a 1982 commerce graduate from Allahabad University. He completed his LLB in 1985 from Meerut College and enrolled as an advocate in the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh the same year.

He started practising in the Allahabad High Court in 1985 and served as the standing counsel for the Uttar Pradesh Avas Evam Vikas Parishad. He was also the standing counsel of Dr B R Ambedkar University, Agra, between 1990 and February 2006.

Justice Mithal was elevated as additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on July 7, 2006, and took oath as permanent Judge on July 2, 2008. He took oath as the Chief Justice of the Common High Court for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh on January 4, 2021. The second senior-most judge who will take oath on Monday, is Justice Karol, whose parent HC cadre is Himachal Pradesh. He was the chief justice of the Patna High Court at the time of elevation. Justice Karol was born on August 23, 1961.

Justice P V Sanjay Kumar, who originally belonged to the Telangana High Court, is third in the list of five judges and was heading the Manipur High Court at the time of recommendation by the Collegium on December 13 last year and subsequent clearance by the Centre. Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah of the Patna High Court is the fourth judge who has been appointed to the SC.

Justice Manoj Misra, the fifth in the list, was born on June 2, 1965. He enrolled as an advocate on December 12, 1988, and was elevated

as additional judge at the Allahabad HC in 2011.