Justices Alok Aradhe, Vipul Pancholi sworn in as Supreme Court judges

The Supreme Court today held the swearing in ceremony for Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Vipul Manubhai Pancholi. Two days back, the Central government had cleared their names for appointment as Supreme Court judges.

Notably, their names were recommended on August 25 by the Supreme Court Collegium.

Justice Alok Aradhe was appointed as Additional Judge of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in 2009 and made a Permanent Judge in 2011. He has been transferred to the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Telangana. In January this year, he was transferred as the Chief Justice of High Court of Bombay and assumed charge on the 21st of January 2025.

Justice Pancholi was elevated as Additional Judge, High Court of Gujarat on 1st October 2014 and confirmed as permanent Judge in 2016. He was later transferred to Patna High Court and took oath as Judge, Patna High Court on 24th July, 2023 and became the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court on 21st July, 2025.

Two vacancies arose at the Supreme Court after the recent retirements of Justices Bela Trivedi and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

The recommendation has been in the spotlight for the past few days owing to a dissent over the elevation of Justice Pancholi, by Justice BV Nagarathna.

Justice B.V. Nagarathna dissented from the collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice Pancholi to the Supreme Court. The recommendation by a 4-1 majority of the collegium led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, saw Justice Nagarathna as the sole dissenter. Her objection has placed the spotlight on the principle of seniority in judicial elevations.

Further, Justice Nagarathna signaled that the collegium’s credibility is at stake. The note reportedly warns that such appointments, when they appear to circumvent established norms, can erode public trust in the institution's fairness and integrity. She is said to have argued that the choices made now will have long-term consequences for how the Supreme Court is perceived.

Following this, Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) had called upon the Supreme Court to indicate the reasons for the recommendation of Justice Vipul Pancholi of the Patna High Court for elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court and the reason for superseding all the other judges, higher in seniority.

CJAR had also asked to make public the reported dissent note of Justice BV Nagarathna allegedly recorded in the meeting of the collegium dated 25 August, 2025 as she has requested.

As per CJAR, it was not clear as to what had swayed the Supreme Court collegium in recommending Justice Pancholi to the Supreme Court, since Justice Pancholi is not merely the third judge from Gujarat to be elevated to the Supreme Court, (disproportionate to the size of the Gujarat High Court and leaving various other High Courts unrepresented) but he is also 57th in all India seniority list of High Court judges.