Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi says he was 'in awe' of how fast four new judges were appointed to Supreme Court

After the Supreme Court got four new judges, taking its strength to 28, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Friday said he was “in awe” of how fast the appointments were made.

“The recommendation (by the collegium) was sent at 11 am on Wednesday to the Law Ministry. I heard that the medical examination of the four judges was conducted on the same evening itself. I was in awe,” NDTV quoted Justice Gogoi as saying.

Justice Gogoi made this remark during an interaction with journalists after the swearing-in of the four judges.

Justices Hemant Gupta, R Subhash Reddy, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi were sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court.

The swearing in ceremony started at 10.30 am in court number 1 of the apex court and Chief Justice Gogoi administered the oath of office to the four judges.

The president had on Thursday given his assent to the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium for elevating Gupta, Reddy, Shah and Rastogi, who were chief justices of different high courts, as apex court judges.

While Justice Gupta was the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Reddy was the Gujarat High Court’s chief justice.

Justice Shah was the chief justice of the Patna High Court and Justice Rastogi was the chief justice of the Tripura High Court.

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.

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

With inputs from PTI