As per sources, the collegium of the Supreme Court on May 16 recommended names of Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Senior Advocate Kalpathy Venkataraman Viswanathan to be designated as judges of the apex court. On Thursday, approval was given by the Centre.On Friday, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan sworn in as the Supreme Court judges. Notably, the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud administered the oath of office to them. According to the information the decision for the recommendation of their names was taken by the Supreme Court collegium presided by CJI Chandrachud and Justices SK Kaul, KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi and Sanjiv Khanna.Reportedly, Viswanathan, born on May 26, 1966, will serve as the Supreme Court judge until May 25, 2031. Thus, Viswanathan will be eligible to succeed Justice JB Pardiwala when he retires on August 11, 2030, and will hold the position until his retirement on May 25, 2031.Vishwanathan is the ninth name to be on the list of lawyers, who is appointed to the Supreme Court directly. After Justices SM Sikri, UU Lalit and PS Narasimha, Vishwanathan will be the fourth such person to become the Chief Justice of India.On the other side, Justice Mishra was chosen on December 10 to serve as a judge in the Chhattisgarh High Court. Since October 13, 2021, he had been the High Court of Andhra Pradeshs Chief Justice. The All-India Seniority List of High Court judges places Justice Mishra, a judge of the High Court for more than thirteen years, at number 21.It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court was operating with 32 justices while having a sanctioned strength of 34. The court will now be fully staffed. The second week of July will see the announcement of four vacancies.
