The apex court currently has a strength of 24 judges against a sanctioned strength of 31. Justices Lokur and Kurian Joseph are set to retire later this year. The Supreme Court will get four new judges on Friday with Justices Hemant Gupta, R Subhash Reddy, M R Shah and Ajay Rastogi scheduled to be sworn in at 10.30 am. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will administer the oath of office to the new judges. Their appointment will take the court’s total strength to 28 judges. Their elevation was cleared by the Supreme Court Collegium comprising the five most senior judges — Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph, A K Sikri and S A Bobde — on October 29. Justice Gupta is Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, while Justice Reddy heads the Gujarat High Court. Justice Shah is Chief Justice of Patna High Court and Justice Rastogi is Chief Justice of Tripura High Court. The recommendations of the Collegium were sent to the government which processed it and the warrants for their appointment to the apex court were issued by the President Thursday. Justice Gupta has served as the additional advocate general of Punjab and was elevated as judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in July 2002. He has also served as the judge of Patna High Court and was elevated as Chief Justice of MP High Court in March 2017. Justice Reddy was appointed judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court in December 2002. With Justice Reddy’s elevation, Telangana will get representation in the Supreme Court. Justice M R Shah, whose parent High Court is Gujarat, became a judge of the High Court in March 2004. He was elevated as the Chief Justice of Patna High Court in August this year. Justice Rastogi, who was appointed as Rajasthan High Court judge in September 2004 was elevated as the Chief Justice of Tripura High Court in March 2018. The apex court currently has a strength of 24 judges against a sanctioned strength of 31. Justices Lokur and Kurian Joseph are set to retire later this year.