President Droupadi Murmu on Monday issued warrants of appointment to five judges of the Supreme Court, taking its overall strength to 37.

Those whose names have been cleared for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court are Justice Sheel Nagu of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Shree Chandrashekhar of Bombay High Court, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva of Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Arun Palli of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court and senior advocate V. Mohana.

However, the total strength of the top court will come down to 35 as Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Pankaj Mithal will retire this month.

Supreme Court judges retire at 65 while high court judges superannuate at 62.

With the elevation of Mohana, the Supreme Court will get another woman judge besides Justice B.V. Nagarathna. Justice Nagarathna is currently the fourth senior-most judge of the Supreme Court and is scheduled to become the Chief Justice for a brief period next year.

Mohana becomes the second woman from Bar to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court, the first being Justice Indu Malhotra, who was elevated in 2018 and has since retired.

The Supreme Court’s recommendation for elevation of the five judges on May 27 was formally acceded to by the Centre through a notification on Monday.

On May 17, the top court’s sanctioned strength rose to 37 judges from 33, excluding the CJI, with Murmu promulgating an ordinance.

Murmu exercised her ordinance power under Article 123(1) of the Constitution on Saturday evening to enhance the sanctioned strength.

“The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026 came into force “at once” upon its publication in the gazette.

The ordinance amended the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, at a time Parliament was not in session as “the President is satisfied that the circumstances exist which render it necessary for her to take immediate action”.