Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and senior advocate KV Viswanathan were officially sworn in as Supreme Court judges in New Delhi, India. This followed a recommendation made by the Supreme Court Collegium on 16 May to elevate Chief Justice Mishra and Viswanathan from the Andhra Pradesh High Court to the Apex Court. The Central Government approved their appointments on Thursday.
The Collegium, headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud and consisting of Justices SK Kaul, KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, and Sanjiv Khanna, made the decision to recommend Justice Mishra and Viswanathan for the prestigious positions. Justice Viswanathan, born on 26 May 1966, will serve as a Supreme Court judge until 25 May 2031. Furthermore, upon the retirement of Justice JB Pardiwala on 11 August 2030, Viswanathan will be next in line to assume the office of the Chief Justice of India until his retirement on 25 May 2031.
With this appointment, Viswanathan becomes the tenth lawyer to be directly appointed to the Supreme Court from the Bar, and he will be the fourth such person to hold the position of Chief Justice of India, following Justices SM Sikri, UU Lalit, and PS Narasimha. Viswanathan obtained his five-year integrated law degree from Coimbatore Law College, Bharathiyar University, and was enrolled with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1988. After practicing before the Supreme Court for more than two decades, he was designated as a senior advocate in 2009. His expertise spans various fields of law, including constitutional law, criminal law, commercial law, insolvency law, and arbitration. He has been recognized by the Supreme Court for his distinguished contributions as amicus curiae in several cases.
On the other hand, Justice Mishra was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Chhattisgarh on 10 December 2009 and later became the Chief Justice of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on 13 October 2021. The Collegium acknowledged that the High Court of Chhattisgarh was not currently represented in the Supreme Court and considered Justice Mishra's thirteen years of service as a judge, ranking him at number 21 on the All-India Seniority List of High Court judges.
The Supreme Court, which currently has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges but was functioning with 32, will now operate at full capacity.
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