13 HELD AFTER SHOOTOUT IN K’TAKA, 1 INJURED
MANGALURU: A total of 13 people have been arrested in connection with the shootout incident late on Sunday night at Ullal near here, city police commissioner PS Harsha said on Monday. Seven others were held for assault. The firearm used during the clashes has been recovered, he said. Harsha said two groups, of which one belonged to political leader Suhail Khandak, and the other, their rival group had clashed. Suhail had fired six rounds, officials said. NEW DELHI: Four new Supreme Court judges took oath of office on Monday, taking the total strength of judges in the apex court to 34.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi administered the oath of office and secrecy to justices Krishna Murari, S Ravindra Bhat, V Ramasubramanian and Hrishikesh Roy in a simple function in courtroom 1.
The appointment takes the number of judges in the apex court to the total sanctioned strength of 34, including the CJI.
Justices Murari and Bhat headed the Punjab and Haryana and Rajasthan high courts, respectively.
Justices Ramasubramanian and Roy headed the Himachal Pradesh and Kerala high courts, respectively.
With a huge backlog of cases in the top court, the Centre had last Wednesday cleared the names of the four high court chief justices who were recommended by the apex court Collegium on August 30 for elevation.
The sanctioned strength of Supreme Court j udges was increased days after the Chief Justice wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the number of judges in the top court.
According to a written reply by the Law Ministry to a Rajya Sabha question on July 11 this year, 59,331 cases are pending in the top court.
Due to paucity of judges, the required number of Constitution benches to decide important cases involving questions of law were not being formed, the CJI had said.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 originally provided for a maximum of ten judges (excluding the CJI).
This number was increased to 13 by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 1960, and to 17 in 1977.
The working strength of the Supreme Court was, however, NEWDELHI: Appointment and transfer of judges form “the root of the administration of justice” and interference in that “does not augur well” for the institution, the SC said on Monday.
It made the observation while deciding to keep the Gujarat High Court Advocate Association’s plea pending which has sought a direction to the Centre to implement the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendations on the transfer of Bombay HC judge Justice Akil Kureshi. The Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, had recommended to
restricted to 15 judges by the Cabinet (excluding the CJI) till the end of 1979. But the restriction was withdrawn at the request of the Chief Justice of India.
In 1986, the strength of the top the Centre to appoint justice Kureshi as the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh HC.
It later recommended that Justice Kureshi be appointed as the chief justice of the Tripura HC.
“Appointments and transfers go to the root of the administration of justice and where judicial review is severely restricted. Interference in system of administration of justice does not augur well for the institution,” the apex court said while keeping the plea of bar body pending.
The bench agreed to the submissions of the GHCAA and fixed the matter for further hearing after the Centre takes a call on its decision.
court was increased to 25, excluding the CJI. Subsequently, the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2009 further augmented the strength of the court from 25 to 30.