Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, Justice Prasanna B Varale, was on Thursday sworn-in as a judge of the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud administered the oath of office and secrecy to Justice Varale, who is the senior-most Judge belonging to a Scheduled Caste and the only Chief Justice of a High Court in the country belonging to a Scheduled Caste.
In terms of combined all-India seniority of High Court Judges, he ranked sixth. Justice Varale was the senior-most Judge at the Bombay High Court, where he was serving before his elevation as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court.
With his appointment, the Supreme Court has reached its maximum strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.
Following the elevation of Justice Varale, the representation of the Scheduled Caste community at the Apex Court has reached its highest strength of three. Justice BR Gavai and Justice CT Ravikumar are the other two Supreme Court judges belonging to the Scheduled Caste.
The Central government had notified the elevation of Justice Varale on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, had last week recommended the elevation of Justice Parale.
The recommendation followed the vacancy which arose in the top court of the country after the retirement of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul in December 2023.
Other members of the Apex Court Collegium included Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Aniruddha Bose.
In its resolution, the Collegium observed that the judgments authored by Justice Varale dealt with a variety of issues in every field of law. It noted that Justice Varale was a competent judge with unimpeachable conduct and integrity, who had throughout maintained high standard of professional ethics.
Before his elevation as a Judge of the Bombay High Court in 2008, Justice Varale practised at the Bar for over 23 years in civil, criminal, labour and administrative law matters in District and Sessions Court and in Constitutional matters at the High Court Bench at Aurangabad. He was appointed as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court in October 2022.