New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to regain its full strength of 34 judges with two fresh appointments to the top court on Saturday. Two days after the Supreme Court Collegium headed by CJI N V Ramana recommended the names of Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Jamshed B Pardiwala of the Gujarat High Court for elevation to the apex court, the Union Law Ministry announced their appointments on Saturday in separate notifications.
Once they take oath early next week, the Supreme Court will regain its sanctioned strength of 34 judges. Justice Pardiwala will go on to serve as the CJI for over two years, sources aware of the procedure to appoint members of the higher judiciary said. Justice Dhulia, who will be the second judge to be elevated from Uttarakhand, is the sibling of national award-winning film director and actor Tigmanshu Dhulia. He will have a tenure of a little over three years.
Justice Pardiwala will be the fourth judge from the Parsi community to adorn the top court bench and the first high court judge from the minority community who has been elevated in the last five years, after Justice S Abdul Nazeer. Justice Nazeer was elevated to Supreme Court in February 2017. With the retirement of Justice R Subhash Reddy on January 4 this year, the total strength of apex court judges had come down to 32 against the sanctioned strength of 34.
Justice Dhulia, born on August 10, 1960, is from Madanpur, a remote village located in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. He joined the Bar at Allahabad High Court in 1986. An alumnus of Sainik School, Lucknow, he did his graduation and Law from the University of Allahabad. Justice Dhulia was the first chief standing counsel in the High Court of Uttarakhand and was later an additional advocate general, and was elevated as the judge in the same high court in November 2008. He later became the chief justice of the High Court of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh on January 10, 2021.