NEW DELHI: Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, and senior advocate Rohinton Nariman Monday became judges of the Supreme Court. They were administered the oath of the office by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha.
With three new judges, the existing strength of the apex court judges has gone up from 25 to 28. The apex court has a sanctioned strength of 31 judges.
Justice Arun Mishra before being elevated to the apex court was chief justice of Calcutta High Court and similarly Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel was the chief justice of Orissa High Court.
Rohinton Nariman Monday joined galaxy of senior counsel who were directly appointed as judge of the apex court from the Supreme Court bar. Nariman was the solicitor general under the UPA-II dispensation.
Before Nariman, Justice Santosh Hegde was made judge of the apex court directly from the bar.
The elevation of Justice Mishra and Justice Goel and appointment of Nariman was marred by the controversy after government returned the apex court collegium's recommendation to appoint Gopal Subramanium as a judge. Subramanium too was the solicitor general before Nariman.