Five judges elevated to Supreme Court to take oath today: Who are they?

The new judges are expected to be sworn in on Monday by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, according to people aware of the matter.

After a two-month-long tussle between the Union government and the judiciary over the appointment of new judges, the Centre cleared the names of five judges for the Supreme Court. A formal notification regarding the same was released on Saturday. The Centre had assured a top court bench, which expressed serious displeasure over the delay, that the appointments will happen “very soon”.

L-R: Justices Pankaj Mithal, Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Sanjay Karol and Manoj Misra.(File)

The new judges are expected to be sworn in as apex court judges on Monday by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, in a ceremony to be held at the court's auditorium in its new building complex. With their appointments, the top court will have 32 out of its sanctioned strength of 34 judges.

Here are the five judges elevated to the Supreme Court:

Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice, Rajasthan high court

Justice Pankaj Mittal graduated from Allahabad University in 1982 and went on to get his law degree from Meerut College. Justice Mithal was appointed as the chief justice of Rajasthan high court in October by President Droupadi Murmu. Prior to that, he served as the chief justice of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. He has formerly served as a judge of the Allahabad high court.

A commerce graduate from Allahabad University, he started practising in Allahabad HC in 1985. He was also the standing counsel of Dr B R Ambedkar University, Agra, between 1990 and February 2006.

He was elevated as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on July 7, 2006, and took oath as a permanent judge on July 2, 2008.

Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice, Patna high court

Justice Sanjay Karol, the second senior most judge who will take oath on Monday, was born in Shimla and obtained his law degree from the Himachal Pradesh University. Born in 1961, he is an alumnus of the prestigious St. Edward School of Shimla and was the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court at the time of his elevation to the top court.

Karol formerly served as the chief justice of Tripura high court. He is also the former judge and acting chief justice of Himachal Pradesh high court. He was appointed as the chief justice of Patna high court on November 11, 2019, by former President Ram Nath Kovind. He has expertise in matters related to Constitution, taxation, corporate, criminal and civil cases.

PV Sanjay Kumar, Chief Justice, Manipur high court

Justice PV Sanjay Kumar assumed the office as chief justice of Manipur high court on February 14, 2021. After his early education and graduation in Commerce from Nizam College from Hyderabad, Kumar went on to get his law degree from the Delhi University in 1988 and enrolled in the Bar Council the same year. He served as the government pleader in the Andhra Pradesh High Court between 2000 and 2003 and was elevated as additional judge of Telangana high court in 2008. He has formerly also served as the judge of Punjab and Haryana high court.

Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Judge, Patna high court

Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah belongs to an eminent family hailing from Bihar and got his law degree from Patna Law College. He has primarily practiced in the Patna high court but also made appearances before the Delhi, Calcutta and Jharkhand high court, as well as the Supreme Court. Justice Amanullah was briefly transferred to Andhra Pradesh high court in October 2021, before being re-transferred to the Patna high court in June last year.

Manoj Misra, Judge, Allahabad high court

Justice Manoj Misra obtained his law degree from the University of Allahabad in 1988 and has, since, practiced in civil, revenue, criminal and Constitutional matters. He was elevated as an additional judge of Allahabad high court on November 21, 2011, by then President Pratibha Patil and was made permanent on 6 August 2013. He has served as a judge of the Allahabad high court since then.