CJI NV Ramana administers oath of office to nine SC judges

Nine judges were sworn in to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, taking its working strength to 33 judges and reducing vacancy to just one.

The new judges are AS Oka, Vikram Nath, Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna, CT Ravikumar, MM Sundresh, Bela Trivedi and PS Narasimha. This is probably the first time nine judges took oath of office on the same day.

The new judges include three women, taking the total number of female judges in the top court to four, the highest in its history.


Chief Justice of India NV Ramana administered the oath of office to the new judges in a short and simple ceremony held in an auditorium in the court’s annexe complex.

All previous functions barring that of the CJI, who is administered the oath of office at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, have been held in the top court building designed to look like the scales of justice from the top. This time, it was held in the annexe keeping factors such as social distancing.

Invitees to the function were also limited due to the pandemic. The function was telecast live on Doordarshan and YouTube.

Judges are required to swear by the name of god to uphold the Constitution of India.

The new female judges are Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna and Bela M Trivedi. The other woman judge is Indira Banerjee.

The four female judges posed for photos later with the CJI for the history books.

Based on seniority, two of the new judges could become the CJIs at a future point of time. Justice Nagarathna could become the first woman CJI of this country. The other judge is Narasimha, a direct appointment from the top court bar.