Hyderabad, Oct 15 (IANS): Seven new judges of the Telangana High Court took oath on Friday.

Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma administered oath to the new judges, including four women.

Judges, court officials and lawyers attended the swearing-in ceremony held at the High Court premises.

The President of India had appointed the new judges on October 13. They are Perugu Sree Sudha, Chillakur Sumalatha, Gurijala Radha Rani, Munnuri Laxman, Noonsavath Tukaramji, Addula Venkateshwara Reddy and Patlolla Madhavi Devi.

With this the number of high court judges rose to 18, including the chief justice. Justice Satish Chandra Sharma had taken oath as the chief justice on October 11.

It was in 2020 that the names of the seven judges were proposed by the Collegium of Telangana High Court and forwarded to the Supreme Court under judicial quota.

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana gave his consent in August and forwarded the names to the Union government to examine and appoint them as judges.

Only 13 judges were serving in the Telangana High Court for almost two years as 11 other posts remained vacant. In June this year, the bench strength of the Telangana High Court, which has over 2.3 lakh pending cases, increased from 24 to 42 judges.

Even after the appointment of seven judges, the High Court will have 24 vacancies.