Chennai: Madras High Court Chief Justice S K Kaul administered the oath of office today to 15 new judges to the High Court. With this, the sitting strength of the court has increased from 39 to 54, as against the total sanctioned strength of 75.

On September 28, the warrant of appointments of the 15 judges issued by the President of India was notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. Following the notification, nine lawyers of the High Court—V Parthiban, R Subramanian, M Govindaraj, M Sundar, R Suresh Kumar, J Nisha Banu, M S Ramesh, S M Subramaniam and Anita Sumanth—were sworn in by the Chief Justice in a ceremony organised at the New Auditorium, in the High Court premises.

Additionally, six persons in the cadre of district judge—AM Basheer Ahamed, T Ravindran, S Baskaran, P Velmurugan, G Jayachandran, and CV Karthikeyan—were also sworn in.

Soon after his swearing in ceremony, Justice Subramaniam presented a copy of declaration of his assets to the Chief Justice.

Delivering his welcome address, the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu R Muthukumaraswamy said, “This is a moment of pride, as this is the second such occasion where such a large number of judges was sworn-in to this High Court.”

Welcoming the new judges, the president of Madras High Court Advocates Association RC Paul Kanagaraj said, “Though we are happy with the 15 appointments, it is disappointing that the entire list of recommendations sent by the High Court was not cleared.”