Supreme Court Gets Three New Judges, Strength Rises To 37
Last week, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended Justice Sunita Agarwal, Justice D.K. Upadhyaya, and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh for appointment as Supreme Court judges.
Supreme Court collegium had forwarded three names to the Centre for appointment of judges to the apex court.
Three new judges were sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court today, a day after Centre approved the Supreme Court Collegium's recommendation on the elevation of three chief justices of the Gujarat, Delhi, and Telangana high courts respectively, as judges of the Supreme Court.
The three judges were sworn in today, at 3.30 PM, a departure from the usual practice of swearing in ceremonies taking place in the morning.
Following the Collegium’s meeting on September 28, the names of the three judges were recommended. They are Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal, Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, and Telangana High Court Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh.
Justice Sunita Agarwal was appointed as the Chief Justice, Gujarat High Court, Ahmedabad on 23rd July 2023, after serving as a Judge in Allahabad High Court for 12 years. After a dedicated practice of 21 years, Justice Agarwal was elevated as Additional Judge of Allahabad High Court on 21st November 2011 and, thereafter, took oath as a Permanent Judge on 6th August 2013.
Justice Agarwal has presided over Single and Division Benches in almost all jurisdictions, such as Civil and Criminal Appeals, Service, Land Acquisition, Intra-Court Appeal and Constitutional matters. She was also part of the Seven Judges Bench of Allahabad High Court which was constituted to deal with issues relating to Subordinate Courts and infrastructure of the High Court and Subordinate Courts.
Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya was appointed and took oath as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Bombay on 29th July 2023, Later he was transferred as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi and took oath of office on 21st January, 2025. Justice Upadhyay was appointed as a puisne Judge of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad on 21st November 2011 and took oath as the permanent Judge of High Court of Judicature at Allahabad on 6th August 2013. He then became Senior Judge of the Lucknow Bench on 28th March 2023.
Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh was appointed as Additional Judge of the High Court of Jharkhand on 24th January, 2012 and confirmed as Permanent Judge on 16th January, 2014. His Lordship also held the post of Executive Chairman of Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority. He was then appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Jharkhand from 20th December, 2022 to 19th February, 2023.
He took oath as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Tripura on 17th of April, 2023 and on transfer took oath as the Chief Justice of the High Court for the State of Telangana on 19th July, 2025.