Centre notifies three Supreme Court judges, taking the working strength to 37

The Union government on Monday notified three appointments to the Supreme Court, lifting the working strength from 34 to 37 once the new judges take the oath. The sanctioned strength is 38, including the chief justice. Law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the names. They are Justice Sunita Agarwal, chief justice of the Gujarat High Court, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, chief justice of the Delhi High Court, and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, chief justice of the Telangana High Court.

The Collegium recommended the three on 28 September. Monday's notification is the government's acceptance of that list, not a fresh selection. One seat on the expanded court remains empty.

Who is coming up

Justice Agarwal began as a judge of the Allahabad High Court. She has been chief justice in Gujarat since July 2023. She took a law degree from Awadh University in 1989, entered practice in December 1990, and was appointed a judge in November 2011. Bar and Bench reported that she will retire from the Supreme Court in April 2031. That is a long remaining tenure by the standard of recent elevations, many of whom arrive with four or five years left.

Justice Upadhyaya studied law at Lucknow University and enrolled as an advocate in May 1991. He was chief standing counsel for Uttar Pradesh from May 2007 until his appointment as a judge in November 2011. He goes to the Supreme Court from the chief justiceship of the Delhi High Court, a court that feeds the apex court more often than most because of the volume of public law that starts in the capital.

Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh goes up from the Telangana High Court, where he is chief justice. The notification treats the three as a single batch. Oath dates had not been published on Monday evening. Until they are sworn, the working strength on the bench remains 34. The minister's figure of 37 is the strength after the oath, not before it.

Why the court is larger than it was

The sanctioned strength was 34 for years. The Supreme Court Amendment Act, 2026 raised it to 38. Monday's batch is the first large use of that extra room. A court of 34 was already splitting into more benches than the building was drawn for. An establishment of 38 does not add four courtrooms by itself. It adds four judges who can sit on the miscellaneous docket, on constitution benches, and on the criminal leave list that now runs late into the afternoon.

Collegium recommendations do not always clear in a week. This one did. The gap between 28 September and 5 October is seven days, short enough that no public objection appears to have stuck. The government did not send any of the three names back. That is the fact Monday's notification records. It does not record a change in how the Collegium is composed, or in the memorandum of procedure that governs the back-and-forth when a name is returned.

One seat is still open against the new ceiling of 38. The next recommendation can fill it, or the Collegium can wait for a retirement and send two names. Justice Agarwal's 2031 retirement date is the far marker. The nearer marker is the oath. Until the three chief justices are sworn in Delhi, Gujarat, the Delhi High Court and Telangana are each short a chief justice, and the Supreme Court is still a court of 34.