Indu Malhotra sworn in as Supreme Court judge

NEW DELHI: After controversies surrounding her elevation to the Supreme Court as a judge, Indu Malhotra received a warm welcome from her fellow judges in the Supreme Court on Friday.

Justice Malhotra’s elevation got mired in controversy after the Central government did not clear Justice KM Joseph’s name for appointment and cleared only her name.

With Justice Malhotra joining the bench, the strength of the Supreme Court is now 25, against the sanctioned strength of 31, including the CJI. This is the third time in the 67-year history of the Supreme Court that it has two sitting women judges—the first time was when Justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Ranjana Prakash Desai served in the court, then Justices Desai and R Banumathi served it, and now Justice Malhotra joins Justice Banumathi.

On her first day, Malhotra reached the court and followed the tradition of having morning tea with the other judges, who welcomed her affectionately.After that, she was walked to Court number 1, where the CJI administered to her the oath of office at 10.30 am.

Following the tradition, Justice Malhotra sat with the CJI in a three-judge bench.A day before her swearing in, some Supreme Court lawyers had sought to stay her appointment until the government cleared the other name.

SC Collegium recommends names for high courts 
The Supreme Court collegium has recommended Allahabad High Court Judge Krishna Murari for appointment as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Madras High Court Judge Ramalingam Sudhakar, currently in J&K, for appointment as Chief Justice of Manipur High Court, and J&K High Court Judge M Yaqoob Mir as Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court.

Meanwhile, the President has appointed Biswajit Basu, Anita Sinha, Abhijeet Gangopadhyay and Jay Sengupta as judges of Calcutta High Court. Lawyers in the High Court were on strike demanding filling of vacancies for judges in the court.