In a big boost for Apex Court strength, the Central government has cleared the appointment of four High Court Chief Justices and Senior Advocate V Mohana as judges of the Supreme Court. SC judge strength has now risen to 37. Along with Justice BV Nagarathna, V Mohanna will be one of only two sitting women judges of the Supreme Court.
The development was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Union Minister of State (in charge) of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal this morning.The appointments come days after the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court was increased from 34 to 38 through an ordinance issued by the government. With the five new appointments, 37 positions in the top court now stand filled.
Along with Mohana, the new appointees are Justice Sheel Nagu (Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court), Justice Shree Chandrashekhar (Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court), Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva (Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court), and Justice Arun Palli (Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh).The recommendation to elevate the appointees was made by the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant last week.
Before his elevation to the top court, Justice Sheel Nagu served as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.He served as the acting Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court before taking oath as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in July 2024.Pertinently, Justice Nagu was also a member of the in-house inquiry committee that examined the cash-at-residence controversy involving Justice Yashwant Varma, one of the most consequential judicial accountability proceedings in recent years.
Justice Chandrashekar has been serving as the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. His parent High Court is Jharkhand.He later served as the acting Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court before being transferred to the Rajasthan High Court and subsequently elevated as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court in September 2025.Justice Chandrashekhar was also part of the Parliamentary Judges Inquiry Committee constituted to examine allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma.
Justice Sachdeva has been serving as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. His parent High Court is Delhi.He was transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2024 and later took oath as its Chief Justice in July 2025.Justice Palli has been serving as Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. His parent High Court is Punjab and Haryana.He was elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in December 2013 and later took oath as Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court in April 2025.
Senior Advocate V Mohana has become only the second woman in India’s history to be directly elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court after Justice Indu Malhotra in 2018.She trained under Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan, became an advocate-on-record at the Supreme Court in 1996 and was designated a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court in 2015.Her appointment will also make her the 12th woman judge in the history of the Supreme Court. Because she is being elevated directly from the Bar, she will have a relatively long tenure of nearly five years and retire in June 2031.
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