Justice Varale of Karnataka High Court takes oath as Supreme Court judge; apex court attains full strength of 34 judges

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, January 25

Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Prasanna Bhalachandra Varale was sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud administered the oath of office to Justice Varale at a brief ceremony attended by judges, advocates and Supreme Court Registry officials here in the morning.

With Justice Varale’s swearing-in, the number of judges in the Supreme Court has reached 34 — which is its total sanctioned strength.

Justice Varale is the third sitting judge from the Dalit community in the Supreme Court, apart from Justice BR Gavai and Justice CT Ravikumar.

The Centre had on Wednesday notified the appointment of Justice Varale as a judge of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had on Friday recommended his elevation to the top court.

The decision was taken unanimously at a meeting of the five-member Collegium which also included Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Aniruddha Bose.

The Collegium took into consideration the fact that Justice Varale – one of the senior-most high court judges – was the only high court chief justice from the Scheduled Caste.

“The Collegium, therefore, unanimously resolves to recommend that Justice Prasanna B Varale be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India,” the Collegium resolution read.

The recommendation came 25 days after the retirement of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on December 25, 2023.

“Bearing in mind that the workload of judges has increased considerably, it has become necessary to ensure that the court has full working judge-strength at all times. The Collegium has, therefore, decided to fill up the sole existing vacancy by recommending a name,” the resolution further read.

Appointed as a Judge of the High Court of Bombay on 18 July 2008, Justice Varale was elevated as Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka on October 15, 2022 and has been performing very well there, the resolution noted.

Describing him as a “competent judge with unimpeachable conduct and integrity”, it stated that he has throughout maintained a high standard of professional ethics and the judgments authored by him deal with a variety of issues in every field of law.

He stood at serial number 6 in the combined all India seniority of High Court Judges and was the senior-most Judge from the High Court of Bombay, it said, adding “We are also conscious of the fact that at present, there are three Judges from the High Court of Bombay on the Bench of the Supreme Court.”