Justices Hemant Gupta, R Subhash Reddy, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi were on Friday sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court, taking its strength to 28.

The swearing in ceremony started at 10:30 am in court number 1 of the apex court and Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi administered the oath of office to the four judges.

President Ram Nath Kovind had on Thursday given his assent to the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium for the elevation of the four judges, who were chief justices of different high courts, as apex court judges.

The apex court has a sanctioned strength of 31. With the elevation of these four new judges, the strength has risen from 24 to 28. This year, two apex court judges -- justices Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- are set to retire while Justice Sikri will demit office in March 2019. 

The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising its four-senior most judges, had on October 30 recommended to the Centre the names of the four for elevation as judges in the apex court.

Justice Hemant Gupta

Justice Gupta was the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court before being elevated to the Supreme Court. Justice Gupta was appointed as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 2, 2002 and on February 8, 2016, he was transferred to the Patna High Court where he was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice on October 29, 2016.

He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on March 18, 2017.

Justice R Subhash Reddy

Justice Reddy has been elevated from the Gujarat High Court where he was the chief justice. Justice Reddy was elevatwed as an additional judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on December 2, 2002. He was then made the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on February 13, 2016.

Justice MR Shah 

Justice Shah was the chief justice of the Patna High Court when the Supreme Court Collegium recommended his name for the elevation to the apex court. Justice Shah was appointed as a judge of the Gujarat High Court on March 7, 2004 and later in August this year, he was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.

Justice Ajay Rastogi

Justice Rastogi has been elevated from the Tripura High Court where he was serving as the chief justice. Justice Rastogi was appointed as a judge of the Rajasthan High Court in September, 2004 and was also made the Acting Chief Justice there. He was elevated as chief justice of the Tripura High Court on March 1 this year.