Collegium picks Delhi high court chief justice, 2 others as SC judges

NEW DELHI: SC collegium Monday recommended to Union govt to appoint chief justices of Gujarat, Delhi and Telangana - Justices Sunita Agarwal, Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Aparesh Kumar Singh - as judges of SC.The collegium comprising CJI Surya Kant, and Justices Vikram Nath, B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh and P S Narasimha decided to recommend these three names.On acceptance of the recommendation and issuance of warrants of appointments, SC's working strength will increase to 37 judges against the sanctioned strength of 38. With Justice Agarwal's elevation, strength of women judges in SC would increase to two.

As the parent high court of Justices Agarwal and Upadhyay is Allahabad HC, its representation in SC would increase to four.

Justice Vikram Nath, who will be the next CJI in Feb, and Justice Manoj Mishra also started their judicial careers from Allahabad HC.Justice Agarwal and Justice Upadhyay were appointed judges of Allahabad HC in Nov 2011 while Justice Singh was appointed judge of Jharkhand HC in Jan 2012. Justice Agarwal became CJ of Gujarat HC in July 2023.Justice Upadhyay was appointed CJ of Bombay HC on July 29, 2023 and then CJ of Delhi HC on Jan 21, 2025. He held the first inquiry on discovery of burnt cash at Justice Yashwant Varma's residence in March last year.Justice Singh was appointed Chief Justice of Tripura high court in April 2023 and then appointed CJ of Telangana in July 2025.