Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and S Venkatanarayana Bhatti on Friday were appointed as judges of the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Friday administered the oath of office to the two new judges, taking the court’s working strength to 32. The Supreme Court has maximum strength of 34 judges.

Bhuyan was appointed as a judge of the Gauhati High Court on October 17, 2011. Before his appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as the chief justice of Telangana High Court.

“During his long tenure as a judge of the High Court Mr Justice Bhuyan has acquired significant
experience in diverse fields of law,” the Supreme Court collegium said. “He has acquired specialisation and domain knowledge in the law of taxation. He has also served as a judge of the Bombay High Court dealing with a wide spectrum of cases including taxation.”

Bhatti was appointed as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on April 12, 2013. He was transferred to the Kerala High Court in March 2019 where he had been serving as chief justice since June 1.

The collegium had noted in its resolution on July 5 that the Andhra Pradesh High Court does not have any representation on the bench of the Supreme Court since August 2022 and Bhatti’s appointment “apart from according representation to the state of Andhra Pradesh…will provide a value addition in terms of his acquired knowledge and experience”.