Surya Kant swears in three judges, taking the Supreme Court to 37

Chief Justice Surya Kant on Tuesday administered the oath of office to three new judges of the Supreme Court of India, taking the working strength to 37 against a sanctioned strength of 38. The three are Justices Sunita Agarwal, Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Aparesh Kumar Singh. The ceremony was held in the auditorium of the new Supreme Court block. Other judges of the Court, and judicial officers from the high courts, attended.

The government notified the elevations on Monday. Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the clearance. The Collegium had recommended the three names on 28 September. The gap from recommendation to oath is eight days, which is short by the standard of recent years, when names have sat with the executive for weeks. All three were chief justices of high courts: Agarwal at Gujarat, Upadhyaya at Delhi, and Singh at Telangana, in the account carried by the New Indian Express. Their move up leaves those three high courts without a chief justice. The Collegium has already started the process of filling those chairs, and interviews are under way.

Agarwal is the sixth woman to be elevated to the Supreme Court. The Court now has three women judges. The other two are Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who has sat since 31 August 2021, and Justice Venkita Subramani Mohana, appointed on 2 June 2026. Three women on a bench of 37 is still a small share. It is also the highest number the Court has had at once. Nagarathna is in the line of seniority that runs toward the chief justiceship later in the decade, a fact that sits beside Tuesday's oath without being changed by it.

The sanctioned strength is part of the story, and it is easy to miss. The Court's establishment was raised from 34 to 38 by the Supreme Court Amendment Act, 2026. Tuesday's oath takes the working number from 34 to 37 in the version of the arithmetic Times of India and Times Now both used, one short of the new ceiling. One seat remains. The Collegium has not, in Tuesday's reports, sent a name for that seat. The practical effect of the Act is that the Court can sit more benches. The practical effect of Tuesday is that three of the four new seats are filled.

Who the three are, beyond the high courts they leave, will shape the lists they join. A chief justice of a large high court arrives with a docket of constitutional and commercial work already behind them, and with a set of colleagues who know their drafting. The Court assigns new judges to benches by the chief justice. Kant has not published the first bench lists for the three. Until those lists appear, the change is in headcount, not in which cases move.

The high court vacancies are the immediate downstream fact. Gujarat, Delhi and Telangana each need a chief justice. An acting chief can hold the court. A long gap changes who controls the roster, which is the administrative power that decides which judge hears which case. The Collegium's interviews are the process for closing that gap. No names had been notified by Tuesday evening.

The numbers to keep are small and exact. Recommendation on 28 September. Notification on 5 October. Oath on 6 October, in the new block. Working strength 37. Sanctioned strength 38, up from 34 this year. Three women on the Court, six in its history. Three high courts waiting for a chief justice. One Supreme Court seat still open.