Supreme Court gets two new judges; CJI administers oath of office

The Supreme Court on Friday got two new judges with the swearing in of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice K V Viswanathan.

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud administered the oath of office to the newly appointed judges in a ceremony here. All SC judges, SC Bar Association members and family members of the two judges were present on the occasion.

After this, the SC would function with full strength of 34 judges. Notably, the recommendations were made by the Collegium on May 16 and the Centre cleared the proposal within 48 hours.

Justice Mishra, who hails from Chhattisgarh High Court, ranks at serial number 21 in the All-India Seniority List of judges of the High Courts.

He was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Chhattisgarh on December 10, 2009. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on October 13, 2021.

Vishwanathan, a distinguished member of the Bar of the Supreme Court has wide experience and profound knowledge and is known in the legal fraternity for his integrity.

After completing the five-year integrated law degree from Coimbatore Law College, Bharathiyar University, Vishwanathan enrolled with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1988. Following his practise before the Supreme Court for over two decades, he was designated as a senior advocate in 2009.

He has appeared in a wide range of cases on diverse subjects including Constitutional law, criminal law, commercial law, the law of insolvency, and arbitration.

Born on May 26, 1966, Vishwanathan, on his appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court, would serve in that capacity until May 25, 2031. Upon the retirement of Justice J B Pardiwala on August 11, 2030, Viswanathan would be in line to assume office as the Chief Justice of India till his retirement.