The Supreme Court now has 34 judges, its highest strength ever

Four new Supreme Court judges will take office today after they were administered their oaths of office by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, bringing the strength of the top court to 34 - its highest ever. The four new judges are Krishna Murari, 61, S Ravindra Bhat, 60, V Ramasubramanian, 61, and Hrishikesh Roy, 59.

V Ramasubramanian, S Ravindra Bhat and Hrishikesh Roy were previously Chief Justices of the Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kerala High Courts, respectively. Krishna Murari was previously Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The appointments come only four months after a previous set of four judges, including Justice BB Gavai, 58, a former Bombay High Court judge who will become Chief Justice of India in 2025, were added.

The addition of eight Supreme Court judges in the space of a few months is an attempt to reduce the growing backlog of cases. According to the Law Ministry, more than 11.5 lakh cases were pending in July.

With that in mind the top court has also, for the first time, allowed single-judge benches to hear appeals of bail and anticipatory bail in cases relating to offences with jail terms of up to seven years.

Earlier, such cases were heard by two-judge benches. Court number 1, which is presided over by the Chief Justice, also sits with three-judge benches.

"As the number of the Judges has increased, they sit in smaller Benches of two and three - coming together in larger Benches of 5 and more only when required to do so or to settle a difference of opinion or controversy," the top court's website said.

Along with four new judges the top court has also created two additional court rooms to hear pending cases. At present the Supreme Court has 15 court rooms and, according to a circular issued last week, court rooms 16 and 17 have been created near court room 10.

Parliament had, in 2008, sanctioned an increase in the number of judges which previously stood at 27 including the Chief Justice.

With input from IANS