Chennai, Mar 22 (UNI) Four new judges were sworn in as Additional Judges of the Madras High Court today.

Chief Justice A P Shah administered the oath of office and secrecy to Judges Thiruneelakantam Sudanthiram, Kannaiya Veeraraghavan, Saminathan Nagamuthu and Shanmugavel Palanivelu at a function held at the High Court.

Of the four, three were from the Bar while Justice S Palanivelu had been elevated from service.

With this, the sitting strength of the court had gone up to a record 46, as against the sanctioned strength of 49.

Born on August 15, 1951 at Chengalpattu, Mr Sudanthiram completed his BA (Economics) at Madras Christian College and secured a law degree from the Madras Law College in 1975. He enrolled as an advocate on February 11, 1976.

Appearing mostly as defence lawyer both in appellate and trial side, he was also Special Public Prosecutor for some cases.

The 55-year-old Veeraraghavan, born at Tindivanam in October 1951, was a holder of BSc, MaA and ML degrees. He enrolled as an advocate in 1978. He served as a senior panel lawyer for the Union government.

Nagamuthu (55), a native of Thanjavur, enrolled as an advocate in 1981. He started his practice in the Madras High Court and later shifted to Madurai in 2004 after a Bench of the High Court started functioning there.

Born in 1955 at Tirunelveli, Palanivelu holds BL and ML degrees.

He enrolled as an advocate in 1981 and became a sub judge in 1989.

After serving as Principal District Judge in various districts, he was appointed Registrar General of the High Court in December 2005.

UNI