11 new HC judges take oath

Allahabad: Governor Ram Naik on Tuesday administered oath to three lawyers and eight members of Higher Judicial Service (HJS) as additional judges of the Allahabad High Court in the jam packed courtroom of Chief Justice.
All the judges, including Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale, officers of registry, members of High Court Bar Association and Advocates’ Association besides a large number of lawyers were present.
With these 11 appointments, the number of judges of high court has reached 87. However, 73 posts of judges are still lying vacant, as the sanctioned strength of judges of this court is 160.
Three lawyers of the High Court who were administered oath as additional judges are Justice Rajul Bhargava, Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Sangeeta Chandra. While Justice Bhargava and Justice Varma are lawyers of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Sangeeta Chandra belongs to Lucknow bench of the High Court.
Other members of Higher Judicial Service (HJS), who were administered oath as additional judges include Daya Shankar Tripathi, Sheo Kumar Singh-I, Virendra Kumar-II, Shailendra Kumar Agrawal, Sanjay Harkauli, Krishna Pratap Singh, Rekha Dixit and Satya Narain Agnihotri.
Justice Rajul Bhargava was mainly a practitioner of criminal side. Justice Siddharth Varma belongs to a family of lawyers, as his father Shashi Kant Varma is a senior advocate of Allahabad High Court. A law graduate from Allahabad University, Justice Varma had been a legal practitioner of civil side. Justice Sangeeta Chandra belonged to Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court.