CHENNAI: The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court AP Sahi on Thursday administered oath to 10 new additional judges including four women judges. With this, its total strength has increased from 53 to 63, of which 13 are women judges -- the most among high courts in the country. The total sanctioned strength of the court is 75.
Justice Murali Shankar Kuppuraju and Justice Thamilselvi T Valayapalaya who took oath as judges are a married couple. Advocate General Vijay Narayan in his welcome address to the new additional judges said it is the first time that a couple is being sworn in on the same day in the Madras High Court. He also stressed that all the remaining vacancies in the court be filled up.
Tiruchy Principal District and Sessions Judge Murali Shankar and the Registrar (Judicial) of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Thamilselvi had tied the knot in 1996.
All the ten judicial officers have been elevated from the district judiciary and appointed as additional judges of the Madras High Court for two years. Only on Tuesday, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice notified the appointment of the ten new judges to the Madras High Court. On September 23, the Supreme Court collegium approved their elevation.
The eight other additional judges sworn in by the Chief Justice were G Chandrasekharan, AA Nakkiran, V Sivagnanam, G Ilangovan, S Ananthi, S Kannammal, S Sathikumar and RN Manjula.
Earlier in 2017, four women judges were appointed to the Madras High Court increasing the number to 11. Two of them have since retired.
Pushpa Sathyanarayana, VM Velumani, Nisha Banu, Anitha Sumanth, Bhavani Subborayan, R Tharani, T Krishnavalli, R Hemalatha and PT Asha are the nine female judges of the Madras High Court who will now be joined by four more additional judges.