DINESH Maheshwari & Sanjiv Khanna Sworn in As SC Judges
Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna were administered oath of office as Supreme Court judges on Friday by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi in the court number 1 of the apex court.The sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court is 31. With the swearing-in of justices Maheshwari and Khanna, the strength has now gone up to 28.Justice Maheshwari was the chief justice of the Karnataka High Court while Justice Khanna was a judge in the Delhi High Court.The government had on Wednesday notified the appointment of justices Maheshwari and Khanna as judges of the apex court.While Maheshwari will demit office on May 14,2013 Justice Khanna, nephew of late Supreme Court Judge Hans Raj Khanna,will superannuate on 13 May 2025.Judges of the Supreme Court of India retire at the age of 65.The five-member Supreme Court Collegium comprising CJI Gogoi, justices A K Sikri, S A Bobde, N V Ramana and Arun Mishra had on January 10 recommended the names of justices Maheshwari and Khanna for elevation as apex court judges.The names of the chief justices of the Rajasthan and Delhi high courts, justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Rajendra Menon respectively, were considered by the collegium on December 12, 2018 for elevation, but the deliberation remained inconclusive and one of the members of the collegium, Justice M B Lokur, retired on December 30, 2018.He has been succeeded by Justice Arun Mishra.The reconstituted Collegium had did not propose elevation of justices Nandrajog and Menon as the country’s Supreme Court.The Bar Council of India (BCI) consisting practising lawyers had protested the Collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice Khanna by superseding several other judges and termed the decision as “whimsical and arbitrary”.Before the BCI made a statement protesting the collegium’s decision, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul of the Supreme Court also wrote a note to the CJI and other members of the collegium for ignoring the seniority of justices Nandrajog and Menon(image courtsey to Bar Bench)