Justice Prasanna B Varale was sworn in as Supreme Court judge on Thursday.
The Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, administered the oath of office to him.
The Supreme Court Collegium last week recommended the elevation of Justice Varale, who was Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court.
A notification to this effect was released by the President of India on January 24.
CJI and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose are the other members of the Collegium.
Justice Varale will now be the third sitting judge of the Supreme Court from the Dalit community, besides Justice BR Gavai and Justice CT Ravikumar.
He was the senior-most High Court judge belonging to a Scheduled Caste and the only Chief Justice belonging to a Scheduled Caste among the Chief Justices of High Courts across the country.
The Collegium, while recommending Justice Varale’s elevation, observed that the judgements authored by him deal with a variety of issues in every field of law.
“He is a competent judge with unimpeachable conduct and integrity and has throughout maintained a high standard of professional ethics,” the five-member collegium recorded in the resolution.
Before his elevation as a judge of the Bombay High Court in 2008, he practiced at the bar for over 23 years in district and session court and constitutional matters at the High Court Bench at Aurangabad.
He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court in October 2022.
