Breaking: Centre Notifies Appointment Of Justices Rajesh Bindal & Aravind Kumar As SC Judges; Supreme Court To Have Full Working Strength

The Central Government has notified the appointments of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Aravind Kumar, currently the Chief Justices of Allahabad and Gujarat High Courts respectively, as Supreme Court judges. With their appointments, the Supreme Court will have full working strength of 34 judges. The last time the Supreme Court had full its full strength of 34 judges was during the period September 2019 -November 2019.

It was on January 31 that the Supreme Court collegium recommended their names for elevation. The 6-member collegium published detailed reasons for their decision.

Justice Bindal, who belongs to Punjab & Haryana High Court, and presently the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, is number 2 in the All India seniority of High Court judges. The collegium noted that P&H HC is not adequately represented in the Supreme Court.

Justice Aravind Kumar, hailing from Karnataka High Court, is at number 26 in the All India seniority list. The resolution also recorded that one collegium member, Justice K M Joseph, has expressed his reservations on the ground that Justice Kumar's name can be considered at a later stage.

On February 4, the Centre had notified the appointments of five judges to the Supreme Court based on the collegium's proposal made in December 2022. Following that, Justices Pankaj Mithal, Sanjay Karol, PV Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Manoj Misra took oath on February 6.