The Supreme Court will today get four new judges after President Pranab Mukherjee cleared the names of three high court Chief Justices and a senior advocate for elevation to the apex court.
Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Ashok Bhushan and the former ASG L. Nageswara Rao are to be sworn as Judges of apex court.
With their swearing-in, the strength of the Supreme Court judges will go up to 29, as against the sanctioned strength of 31 judges.
The appointments come days after a teary-eyed Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur lamented 'inaction' by the Executive to increase the number of judges from the present 21,000 to 40,000 to handle the 'avalanche' of litigations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was also present at the event in New Delhi, had assured him of the government's intervention.
Prime Minister Modi said that he understood the Chief Justice's concern and added that that going forward, he hoped that the Government and the Judiciary could work together to find solutions to these issues.