3 judges sworn in, raising SC strength to 29

   New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Three judges, including a woman,
 were today sworn in as India's Supreme Court judges, raising
 the strength of women in the highest judiciary to two for the
 first time.
   Justices Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, Ranjana Prakash
 Desai and Jagdish Singh Khehar were administered the oath of
 office by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, taking the total strength
 of judges at the apex court to 29 from the present 26.
   While Justice Mukhopadhya was the Chief Justice of
 Gujarat High Court, Justice Desai was a judge of the Bombay
 High Court and Justice Khehar Chief Justice of Karnataka High
 Court.
   Though the apex court got its first woman judge in 1989,
 with the appointment of Justice Desai, it will be for the
 first time that the apex court will be having two women judges
 together on the bench. The other judge is Justice Gyan Sudha
 Misra.
   The apex court at present has a sanctioned strength of 31
 judges including the CJI, but currently it is having only 26
 judges, out of which four are scheduled to retire by October
 15. So, even after these three appointments, there would still
 be six vacancies.
   Going by the seniority of the present apex court judges,
 Justice Khehar, who was sworn in Tuesday is being seen as a
 potential first Sikh Chief Justice of India after the
 retirement of Justice T S Thakur on January  4, 2017. Justice
 Thakur is likely to take the reins of the top judge's post in September 2014.