President Pratibha Patil on Thursday cleared the appointment of Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court Gyan Sudha Misra as Supreme Court judge. She is the fourth woman judge of the Supreme Court after Fatima Beevi, Sujata Manohar and Ruma Pal, who retired in June 2006.

The President has also cleared the appointment of Chief Justices of the Madras and Bombay High Courts H.L. Gokhale and Anil Ramesh Dave as judges of the Supreme Court.

Highly placed sources told The Hindu that the warrant of appointment was expected in a day or two, after which the judges would be sworn in. With these elevations, the strength of judges will go up to 30 against the sanctioned strength of 31.

Justice Misra (61) was initially appointed judge of the Patna High Court in March 1994 but was transferred soon to the Rajasthan High Court. After 14 years of successful tenure there, Justice Misra was elevated Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court in Ranchi in July 2008. She will have a four-year tenure as Supreme Court judge.

Justice Gokhale (61) was appointed Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court in January 1994, and was transferred to the Gujarat High Court in February the same year. He was made Permanent Judge of the Bombay High Court in January 1995 and retransferred to that High Court in February 1999. He was acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court in 2007 for a brief period and appointed Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in March 2007. He was transferred as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court from March 2009. He will have a four-year tenure as Supreme Court judge.

Justice Dave (58) was appointed Additional Judge of the Gujarat High Court in September 1995 and made permanent in June 1997. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in January 2008 and transferred as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court in February this year. He will have a tenure of over five years