NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has regained its full strength of 34 judges with the Union Law Ministry notifying the appointments of Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Gujarat High Court’s Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala to the Supreme Court. The five-member SC Collegium headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana had recommended the two names on May 5.
The two judges will take oath early next week. Justice Dhulia, who will be the second judge to be elevated from Uttarakhand, hails from Madanpur, a remote village in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. He will have a tenure of a little over three years and will retire in 2025. His father Justice Keshev Chandra Dhuliya was a judge at Allahabad High Court and grandfather Bhairav Dutt Dhulia was a freedom fighter, who was sentenced to seven years in jail during the Quit India Movement.
Justice Dhulia’s elder brother Himanshu Dhulia is a retired naval officer and the younger, Tigmanshu Dhulia, is a national award-winning film director. Justice Dhulia was born on 10 August, 1960, in Lansdowne and had his early education in Dehradun and Allahabad. He is an alumni of Sainik School, Lucknow, and University of Allahabad, from where he did his graduation and law.
He joined the bar at Allahabad High Court in 1986 and shifted to his home state Uttarakhand on its formation in 2000. He was the first Chief Standing Counsel in the High Court of Uttarakhand and was later an Additional Advocate General for the State. He was elevated as a judge in Uttarakhand High Court in November 2008. Justice Pardiwala is fourth generation legal professional in a family of lawyers.
Born on August 12, 1965, in Mumbai, he did his schooling in St. Joseph Convent School in his hometown Valsad in Gujarat. He graduated from the J P Arts College, Valsad and obtained law degree from the K.M. Mulji Law College, Valsad, in 1988. Justice Pardiwala started practicing law in the Gujarat High Court in 1990. He was elected as a member of the Bar Council of Gujarat in 1994.
He was appointed as the Standing Counsel for the HC in 2002 and held the office till the date of his elevation to the Bench in February 2011. Fourth Parsi to become SC judge, Justice Pardiwala will go on to become the Chief Justice of India in 2028 and will have a tenure of two years.
Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia
Justice Dhulia’s younger brother is national awardwinning film director Tigmanshu Dhulia while elder brother Himanshu Dhulia is a retired naval officer. His father was a judge at Allahabad HC and grandfather was a freedom fighter.
Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala
Justice Pardiwala will be the fourth judge from the Parsi community to adorn the top court bench and the first high court judge from the minority community who has been elevated to the apex court in the last five years, after Justice S Abdul Nazeer in 2017.