Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and former Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan became the latest to join the Supreme Court as judges. Chief Justice of Inida (CJI) administered the oath on Friday, 19 May.
After the top court's Collegium recommended the two for judgeship on Tuesday, 16 May, the centre approved the appointments on 18 May.
Here's an overview of their legal career:
Justice KV Vishwanathan
“Shri Viswanathan has a sound understanding of law and is known in the legal fraternity for his integrity and as an upright senior member of the Bar,” the Collegium had said in its statement.
Vishwanathan is slated to become the 58th Chief Justice in 2030. In fact, he will join the list of lawyers who became the CJI later after being elevated from the bar.
Justices SM Sikri and UU Lalit were the two other people who went on to become the Chief Justice of India after being elevated to the post of judge form the bar. Sitting judge Justice P S Narasimha, will become the third CJI who was elevated from the bar.
Vishwanathan, who represented one of the petitioners in the marriage equality case, has been in the profession for more than 30 years.
Earlier this year, he represented the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) in a batch of petitions challenging the 2016 WhatsApp privacy policy. At the time, he had informed the top court that there was no regulation with respect to data protection, even though it has the positive obligation to regulate it.
Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra
Prior to being appointed as an apex court judge, Justice Mishra was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2021.
Before that, he served as the Acting Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh High Court and as Judge of the same court.
The Collegium, in fact, underlined that recommending him was crucial since there was no representation from the Chhattisgarh High Court among top court judges.
"Besides according representation to the State of Chhattisgarh, the appointment of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra will provide a value addition in terms of his acquired knowledge and experience. Justice Mishra is a judge with integrity," the resolution noted.
In March last year, a bench headed by Justice Mishra had rejected the Andhra Pradesh government's plans to have three state capitals.
The High Court had ruled that the state government does not have legislative competence to pass any resolution or law for change of capital or bifurcating or trifurcating the capital city.
After coming to power in 2019, the YSRC-led Andhra Pradesh government had dropped the plan to develop Amaravati as the capital city and decided to have three capitals -- Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool.
Prior to being a judge, he practised as a lawyer at the Raigarh District Court and later in the Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh High Courts.