Two additional judges were appointed to the Bombay High Court today. As judges of the Bombay High Court, two judicial officers were sworn in, with the addition of these more working hands, the number of High Court judges in Bombay has grown to 57.
Urmila Sachin Joshi-Phalke and Bharat Pandurang Deshpande are the judges who took the oath.
In September 2021, the Supreme Court proposed their promotion to the High Court for the first time, the files had been returned by the central government, but the Collegium had renewed its proposal on February 1 of this year.
On June 3, the central government officially announced their appointment.
The Bombay High Court has a strength of 95 judges, however even with the addition of these two judicial officers, there are still 35 vacancies.
On the other hand, two new judges were sworn in as extra justices of the Madras High Court, bringing the total number of judges on the bench to 58.
Justices Sunder Mohan and Kabali Kumaresh Babu were sworn in by Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari of the Madras High Court.
R Shunmugasundaram, the Attorney General of Tamil Nadu, was also present at the inauguration.
In 2021, the High Court recommended the two new judges from a list of six names. On February 16, 2022, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended all six of them.
Two new courtrooms have been added to the High Court. Three judge’s chambers of the Madras High Court building have been demolished and replaced with two court rooms, one for a division bench and the other for a single judge.