Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Gujarat High Court Judge Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala have been appointed as judges of the Supreme Court, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju informed on Saturday.
Justice Pardiwala will also be in line to become the Chief Justice of India and will have a tenure of about two years and three months as the top judge of the country.
The Law Minister shared the notification of the Department of Justice on his official Twitter handle.
Full sanctioned strength
The Supreme Court will have its full sanctioned strength of 34 judges until the retirement of Justice Vineet Saran on May 10.
Justice Dhulia will be the second judge to be elevated from the Uttarakhand High Court. The grandson of a freedom fighter who took part in the Quit India Movement, Justice Dhulia, who hails from Madanpur, a remote village in Pauri Garhwal district, was elevated as a judge of the High Court in November 2008. He later became the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court on January 10, 2021.
Justice Pardiwala will be the fourth Parsi to be elevated to the Bench of the Supreme Court. A fourth generation legal professional in his family, his father, Burjor Cawasji Pardiwala, had briefly served as the Speaker of the Seventh Legislative Assembly of Gujarat, besides being a lawyer.
After Justice S. Abdul Nazeer’s elevation to the Supreme Court in February 2017, his appointment is the first from minority community in the past five years.
CJI’s consensus effort
Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana has been able to reach a consensus with his collegium members, Justices U.U. Lalit, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud, and L. Nageswara Rao, unanimously recommend 11 names so far to the apex court in August 2021.
The Collegium’s success had seen a record nine judges, including three women, sworn in as Supreme Court Justices on August 31 last. One of the women judges, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, is in line to be the first woman CJI.
