In a first, 9 judges, all practising lawyers in city, take oath at Delhi high court

NEW DELHI: For the first time in its history, the Delhi high court got nine new judges at one go. Its strength has now risen to 44.
On Wednesday, acting chief justice Vipin Sanghi administered the oath of office to justices Tara Vitasta Ganju, Mini Pushkarna, Vikas Mahajan, Tushar Rao Gedela, Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, Sachin Datta, Amit Mahajan, Gaurang Kanth and Saurabh Banerjee.
The swearing-in ceremony took place in the court of the chief justice in the presence of other high court judges, lawyers and family members of the newly sworn-in judges.
While the proposal for elevation of Ganju and Pushkarna was approved by the Supreme Court in August 2020, the other seven advocates were recommended by the SC collegium led by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on May 4 this year.
Interestingly, the judges have been appointed on a permanent basis, unlike in the recent past where they were elevated first as additional judges and made permanent by a separate resolution later in either six months or even a few years. The reason is the high level of vacancies of permanent posts of judges in the Delhi high court.
All nine judges who took oath were practising lawyers in Delhi, who had done their schooling, college, law from the city. Several of them were representing the central government and various civic bodies for the past decade or so and are expected to be well versed with the intricacies of city administration and affairs.
For instance, advocate Gaurang Kanth has studied from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi and graduated from Hindu College, Delhi University in the year 1995. After finishing LLB from Campus Law Centre, Kanth did his master’s from the USA and practised there before returning to India. He has been the Centre’s standing counsel in the high court and also the standing counsel for Comptroller and Auditor General of India, corporation and Central Information Commission.
Another lawyer Mini Pushkarna, who was elevated on Wednesday, passed out from Springdales, Dhaula Kuan and graduated from Hindu College, Delhi University while finishing law from the Campus Law Centre. She has 25 years of experience as an advocate having been standing counsel for various bodies and has worked extensively for the three municipal corporations, DUSIB and Delhi government.
As an advocate, Amit Mahajan was standing counsel for the Centre, Enforcement Directorate and special public prosecutor for Delhi Police in northeast riot cases.