The Supreme Court gets a new judge, Justice Vinod Chandran, on Thursday (January 16, 2025). The Chief Justice of India, Sanjeev Khanna administered an oath to the former Chief Justice of Patna High Court, Chandran, raising the judicial strength of the Supreme Court to 33. This is a number short of the full sanctioned strength of 34 judges.
Need for Judge From kerela
The Supreme Court collegium recommended Justice Chandran to the Union government early in January 2025. The collegium headed by Chief Justice Khanna noted that there was currently no judge from the High Court of Kerala on the bench of the Supreme Court. Justice Chandran came out as the senior most among High Court judges hailing from Kerala, in November 2011. He was appointed as a judge of the Kerala High Court and was later elevated to the Patna High Court Chief Justice in March 2023.
Justice Chandran is the second Supreme Court judge successfully inducted by the Khanna Collegium, after Justice Manmohan was recently appointed in December 2024. His tenure would last till April 2028.
The Supreme Court currently runs with the pendency of nearly 83,000 cases. A fully sanctioned strength of judges would help the overburdened judicial operators of India. The November 2023 Collegium Resolution also stated that the apex court cannot afford even one judicial vacancy in such a situation.
“The workload of judges has increased considerably. Bearing in mind the above, it has become necessary to ensure that the court has full working judge strength, leaving no vacancy at any point in time,” the collegium stated.
