The Union government on Monday appointed five new judges to the Supreme Court, taking the apex court’s working strength to 37 after President Droupadi Murmu approved their elevation following consultation with Chief Justice Surya Kant.The appointees are Justice Sheel Nagu, chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, chief justice of the Bombay High Court, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Arun Palli, chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and senior advocate Venkita Subramani Mohana.Mohana is only the second woman to be directly elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court, after Justice Indu Malhotra, Bar and Bench reported. She will also be one of only two serving women judges in the court, alongside Justice BV Nagarathna.On May 5, the Union Cabinet approved a bill to increase the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court to 38 from 34, including the chief justice. After Monday’s appointments, the court is now one judge short of its sanctioned strength.At the time, the government had said that the increase would allow the Supreme Court “to function more efficiently and effectively, ensuring speedy justice”.Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the proposal was necessary in view of the pendency of nearly 92,000 cases in the Supreme Court.When the Supreme Court was created in 1950, it had only eight judges, including the chief justice.The court’s strength was subsequently increased to 11 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 18 in 1977, 26 in 1986 and 31 in 2009 before being raised to 34 in 2019.Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.Also read: Why increasing the strength of the Supreme Court will not help clear the growing case backlog