Centre notifies appointment of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, Justice S Venkatanarayana Bhatti as SC judges

New Delhi, July 12

The Centre on Wednesday notified the appointment of Telangana High Court Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Kerala High Court Chief Justice S Venkatanarayana Bhatti as the judges of the Supreme Court.

Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal took to Twitter to announce it.

The Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had last week unanimously recommended the names of Justice Bhuyan and Justice Bhatti for appointment for elevation to the top court.

The decision to recommend their names was taken by the five-member Collegium—which also included Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant—in its July 5 meeting.

The Supreme Court – which has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, including the CJI—is currently functioning with only 30 judges following the retirement of three judges during the supper vacation another one last week.

Justice Bhuyan’s parent high court is Gauhati High Court while Justice Bhatti’s parent high court is Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Justice Bhuyan was appointed as a judge of the Gauhati High Court on October 17, 2011. He is the senior-most judge of his parent High Court and is serving as Chief Justice of the High Court for the State of Telangana since June 28, 2022. He has also served as a judge of the Bombay High Court and has dealt with a wide spectrum of cases, including taxation.

Justice Bhatti was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on April 12 2013 and is the senior-most in his parent High Court. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh does not have any representation on the Bench of the Supreme Court since August 2022. He was transferred to the High Court of Kerala in March 2019 and is presently serving as Chief Justice there since June 1, 2023.