President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday appointed nine judges to the Supreme Court including three women judges. The apex court will now have a working strength of thirty-three judges against the sanctioned strength of thirty-four judges for the SC. 

Notifications for three out of nine judges are out with names of Justices Abhay Oka, Vikram Nath, Jitendra Maheshwari appointed as the Supreme Court judges.

If the seniority rules apply, Justice B V Nagarathna Chief will be the first women Chief Justice of India in September 2027 with a tenure of 36 days. Earlier, B V Nagarathna was in Karnataka High Court but now has been appointed to the Supreme Court.

As reported earlier by Times Now, the government had forwarded nine names recommended by the Supreme Court collegium for appointment of judges in the top court to the President for final approval. A call was expected to be taken “shortly”, government sources had said.

The chosen nine:

The list of judges consists of – Justice B V Nagarathna, who will be in line to be the first woman Chief Justice of India (CJI) in September 2027, Justice Bela M Trivedi, Justice Hima Kohli, Justice C T Ravikumar, Justice MM Sundresh, and senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha along with justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Vikram Nath and Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari.

Last week, an SC Collegium, headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana and consisting of judges UU Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, had recommended nine names to the government. The recommendations also included eight judges of High Courts and a senior advocate. This is reportedly the first time that the Collegium has recommended nine judges and the Centre has approved them all, news agency IANS reported.