Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, Adv KV Viswanathan to take oath as SC judges

New Delhi: Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, the chief justice of the andhra Pradesh High Court, and senior lawyer Kalpathy Venkataraman Viswanathan, who have been appointed as Supreme Court judges, will be administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of India D Y Chadrachud on Friday.

The warrant of appointments of Justice Mishra and Viswanathan as judges of the apex court was issued from the office of President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday and the appointments were announced by new Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Twitter.

The CJI will administer the oath at 10:30 am in the newly built auditorium of the Supreme Court and the swearing-in function will be live-streamed on the court's website, the apex court said in a statement.

The proceedings can also be viewed on YouTube, it said.

The apex court would regain its full strength of 34 judges, including the CJI, for a brief period as three judges -- Justice K M Joseph, Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice V Ramasubramanian -- are demitting office during the summer vacation itself.

The Supreme Court Bar Association will be holding a farewell function for these three judges on Friday itself.

With the retirements of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice M R Shah, the current strength of judges in the Supreme Court had fallen to 32 as against the sanctioned strength of 34.

The collegium headed by the CJI on May 16 had recommended to the Centre the names of Justice Mishra and senior advocate Viswanathan as judges of the apex court.

Besides the CJI, the collegium also comprises justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi and Sanjiv Khanna.

The clearance of these two names from the Centre came within two working days.

Viswanathan, upon the retirement of Justice JB Pardiwala on August 11, 2030, will become the Chief Justice of India and remain in the post till May 25, 2031.