THE Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court (MPHC), Ravi Malimath, on Monday, administered the oath of office and secrecy to the seven newly-appointed Judges in the High Court. A number of senior judges and members of Bench and Bar participated in the oath-taking ceremony. The new Judges including Roopesh Chandra Varshney, Anuradha Shukla, Sanjeev Sudhakar Kalgaonkar, Prem Narayan Singh, Achal Kumar Paliwal, Hirdesh and Avanindra Kumar Singh took the oath of office on Monday.

The Department of Law and Justice had on last Thursday issued notification for appointment of the seven judges following the President’s approval. With the new appointments, the strength of Judges in the Madhya Pradesh High Court now has increased to 36 Judges. However, 17 posts of judges in the High Court are still vacant. The appointment of these judges is expected to bring significant relief in the hearing of pending cases in the High Court. The High Court Collegium, chaired by the Chief Justice of the High Court, had sent the names of these judicial officers for recommendation to the Supreme Court Collegium.

After considering the matter, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended appointment of them as High Court judges. The file of these seven names was sent to the President, and upon receiving approval, the Department of Law and Justice, Government of India issued the appointment order.