President appoints five new judges to SC proposed by the Centre

"As per the provisions under the Constitution of India, the Hon’ble President of India has appointed the following Chief Justices and Judges of the High Courts as Judges of the Supreme Court. I extend best wishes to all of them", wrote Law Minister Kiren Rijiju in a tweet.

Names of five appointed judges:

Justice Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court

Justice Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice of Patna High Court

Justice P. V. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Justice of Manipur High Court

Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Judge, Patna High Court

Justice Manoj Misra, Judge, Allahabad High Court

The new judges would take the oath early next week. With the fresh appointments, the strength of the apex court will go up to 32 judges.

At present, the apex court is working with 27 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.

The Centre is yet to clear two more names, after which the SC will have its sanctioned strength of 34 judges.

The appointments come a day after the Supreme Court the delay in the elevation of High Court judges, as recommended by the Supreme Court collegium, is a very very serious matter and more serious than anything else.

A division bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul was hearing the petitions concerning the delay by the Central Government in clearing names as High Court and SC judges after being cleared by the Collegium.

"We will have to take a difficult decision. Do not make us take a hard stand," the Supreme Court told Attorney General R Venkataramani while granting a week’s time to the Central government to take a decision.

The AG had told the bench that the new appointments may come through by Sunday or very close to that day.

The collegium system has become a major flashpoint between the Supreme Court and the centre, with the mechanism of judges appointing judges fuelling an intense debate.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has made some strong comments about the collegium system.

(With UNI inputs)