Supreme Court To Function At Full Strength Again As Justice Prasanna B Varale Takes Oath

The Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P B Varale on Thursday took oath as a judge of the Supreme Court. 

The top court will now function at its full strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.

Source : Supreme Court of India

The Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale on Thursday was sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court by CJI D Y Chandrachud.

The top court will now function at its full strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.

The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended Justice Varale's name earlier this month. Justice Varale was serving as chief justice for Karnataka High Court before his appointment. Consequently, Justice P S Dinesh Kumar was elevated as chief justice of the Karnatak High Court.

Justice Varale was one of the senior-most high court judges and was the only high court chief justice from the Scheduled Caste community. He will be the third sitting top court judge from his community after Justices B R Gavai and C T Ravikumar.

After Justice S K Kaul retired from the apex court in December 2023, announcement for the next appointment came in January first week.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Prasarma Bhalachandra Varale, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, to be a Judge of the Supreme Court of India, with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office." a law ministry notification read.

Justice Prasanna B Varale was born on June 23, 1962 in Karnataka's Nipani district. He graduated in Arts and Law from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. He enrolled as an Advocate in August, 1985. 

Then he joined the Chamber of Advocate S.N.Loya and practiced on Civil & Criminal Side. Hee has also served as lecturer in Law at Ambedkar Law College, Aurangabad from 1990 to 1992. He also worked as Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor, High Court Bench at Aurangabad and Additional Standing Counsel for Union Of India. 

He was Elevated at Bombay High Court in 2008 and he took oath as The Chief Justice of High Court of Karnataka on 15th October 2022.