The Chief Justice of India and the Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President under clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution.

Two years before in the month of September (2019), the appointments of judges to the Supreme Court had taken place. Currently, the Supreme Court of India is working with 24 judges out of a permissible strength of 34.

The President of India has notified the appointment of 9 Judges to the Supreme Court of India – Justices – A.S. Oka, Vikram Nath, J.K. Maheshwari, Hima Kohli, B.V. Nagarathna, C.T. Ravikumar, M.M. Sundresh, Bela M. Trivedi and Sr. Adv – P.S. Narasimha.

Through these approved 9 appointments, the active strength has risen to 33 judges in the Court, leaving out one vacancy and considering the levels and layers of seniority, the first woman who is in line to become the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) in September, 2027 is Justice B V Nagarathna.

With regards to the statistics of women judges in Supreme Court from 1950, there had been only 8 women judges. Justice M Fathima Beevi was the first woman judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court in 1989 i.e. 40 years after its establishment.

In addition, these appointments come in the wake of long running vacancies at the Supreme Court of India with ex-CJI Sharad Arvind Bobde not recommending even a single name for the coveted positions in his term and the MoP (Memorandum of Procedure) being silent on the time period to be taken by the Govt to act on the recommendations of the Collegium.