Confirming rumours, it has been announced that the strength of the Supreme Court will soon be 28. Chief Justices Ananga Kumar Patnaik, Tirath Singh Thakur, Surinder Singh Nijjar, P.D. Dinakaran and K.S. Radhakrishnan will soon be elevated to the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik, Madhya Pradesh High Court

Born June 3, 1949, he graduated from Delhi University with Honours in Political Science  and obtained his law degree from Madhusudan Law College, Cuttack.

Enrolled with the State Bar Council of Orissa, he practised in Orissa. Specializing in commercial  and  constitutional  law, he assumed charge as an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in 1994, and later in the same year as an Additional Judge of the Gauhati High Court. After eight years as a Permanent Judge in the Gauhati High Court, he was transferred to Orissa in 2002. He assumed charge as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in October 3, 2005.

Chief Justice Surinder Singh Nijjar, Calcutta High Court

Born June 7, 1949, he obtained his LLB from the University of London and was awarded his Bar-at-Law from the Middle Temple Inn in 1975. He practiced in London between 1975 and 1977. He enrolled as an Advocate of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in 1977 and was appointed as Standing Counsel to several nationalised banks and government corporations. Designated as a Senior Counsel in 1989, the Government of Punjab appointed him as an Additional Advocate General in 1995.

He was elevated to the Bench of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana, Chandigarh as an Additional Judge in 1996 and later transferred as an Additional Judge of the High Court at Bombay. 1998 saw him appointed as a Puisne Judge of the High Court at Bombay. He was transferred back to the High Court of Punjab & Haryana in 2000, and was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice in 2006. He assumed charge as the Chief Justice of the High Court at Calcutta in 2007.

Chief Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, Gujarat High Court

Born May 15, 1949, and educated in Cochin, he enrolled in 1973. Standing Counsel for a number of educational and social organizations, he was also a member of Faculty of Law, Cochin University of Science and Technology and Fellow of ICPS, New Delhi besides having worked as a research scholar under Dr. S. N. Jain, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.

Appointed as an Additional Judge of the Kerala High Court in 1995 and as a Permanent Judge in 1996, he was also President of the Kerala Judicial Academy, among other posts. He was appointed as an acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala in 2005. He was elevated to the Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir in 2008. He assumed charge as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat later that year.

Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran, Karnataka High Court

Born May 9, 1950, he graduated in Science from the Madras Christian College, Chennai and obtained a masters degree in Political Science and Public Administration and subsequently an LLB from the Madras Law College.

Enrolled in 1976, he was appointed as a legal adviser and Standing Counsel for Pondicherry University and for several state-owned corporations and for various religious institutions including the Churches of South India and Sri Subramania Swami Temple.

He was appointed as an Additional Central Government Standing Counsel at the High Court, Madras in 1992 and was elevated as a permanent Judge of the Madras High Court in 1996. Known for having disposed of 72,795 cases during his tenure in the Madras High Court, he assumed charge as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka in 2008.

Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Punjab and Haryana High Court

Born January 4, 1952 he enrolled as a pleader in 1972 and joined the Chambers of his father, the Late Mr. D.D. Thakur, a leading lawyer and later, a Judge of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir.

Elected as President of the Bar Association in the year 1986, he was designated as a Senior Advocate in 1990. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir in 1994 and later in the same year, transferred to Karnataka. He was transferred as a Judge of the High Court of Delhi in July 2004.  He was appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court in 2008 and took over as Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh later that year.