New Delhi: Ten new additional judges were appointed to the Madras High Court on Tuesday, according to two separate Law Ministry notifications.
According to the first notification, Kannammal Shanmuga Sundaram, Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup, Murali Shankar Kuppuraju, Manjula Ramaraju Nalliah, and Thamilselvi T Valayapalayam have been appointed as additional judges of the Madras High Court, in that order of seniority.
While the appointments of Kurup, Kuppuraju, Nalliah and Valayapalayam would be for a period of two years with effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices, the period of appointment of Sundaram would be with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office till July 19, 2022.
As per the second notification, Govindarajulu Chandrasekharan, A A Nakkiran, Veerasamy Sivagnanam, Ganesan Ilangovan and Ananthi Subramanian have been appointed as additional judges of the Madras High Court, in that order of seniority.
The appointments of Chandrasekharan, Nakkiran, Sivagnanam and Ilangovan would be for a period of two years with effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices. However, the period of appointment of Subramanian would be with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office till July 30, 2022.
A Department of Justice functionary explained that specific dates have been mentioned in two cases as both judges would retire on those respective dates on attaining the age of 62 years.
High Court judges retire at the age of 62 while Supreme Court judges retire at 65 years.
Two notifications were issued as the government had received separate proposals for their appointments, the functionary added.
As of now, the Madras HC is functioning with 53 judges against a sanctioned strength of 75 — a shortage of 22. The figures are as on November 1 as available on the website of the Department of Justice.