New Delhi: To fill the vacancies, the Supreme Court of India collegium cleared names of justice R Subhash Reddy, justice Hemant Gupta, justice M R Shah, and justice Ajay Rastogi for elevation as Supreme Court judges.

Gujarat high court chief justice Reddy, Madhya Pradesh high court chief Justice Gupta, Patna high court chief justice M R Shah, and Tripura high court chief justice Ajay Rastogi’s elevation was recommended unanimously.

The collegium is a body of the five top judges, which is responsible for all appointments to the top court. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi heads it and also includes justice MB Lokur, justice Kurien Joseph, justice A K Sikri and justice S A Bobde.

These appointments to the top court come as two vacancies were due by the year-end. The judges due to retire include justice Kurian Jospeh (November) and justice M B Lokur (December). Justice A K Sikri will retire in March next year. These retirements would have taken down the strength of the top court to 26 by year-end. But with the new appointments, the number of judges at the top court will rise to 28. The sanctioned strength of Supreme Court judges in 31.

The last appointments of the SC judges were made in August when Justice Indira Banerjee, Justice Vineet Saran and Justice K M Joseph were sworn in.

Justice Reddy, who comes from a family of farmers in Telangana’s Medak district, began his career as an advocate. He was appointed as a high court judge in 2002. Justice Reddy continued as a Hyderabad high court judge until 2016. He had been Gujarat HC chief justice since then.