Jaipur: Justices Mahender Goel and Shubha Mehta have become the first couple to serve as judges in the history of the Rajasthan high court. The Law and Justice Department of the Central government issued a notification on Friday appointing Shubha Mehta and Kuldeep Mathur as judges in the Rajasthan High Court.
Shubha Mehta's husband Mahendra Goel is already a judge in the Rajasthan High Court. This is the first time that a husband and wife will work together in the same High Court as a judge. Shubha Mehta has been appointed from the judicial officer quota, while Kuldeep Mathur has been appointed from the lawyer's quota. Mathur used to advocate in the Jodhpur main bench of the Rajasthan High Court.
Justice Mehta was a judge in the district and sessions court of Udaipur before being appointed as a judge in the High Court. Justice Mahendra Goel was appointed from the lawyer's quota in November 2019. With the appointment of Shubha Mehta and Kuldeep Mathur, the number of judges in the Rajasthan High Court has gone up to 27. However, the sanctioned strength of judges in the Rajasthan High Court is 50. There are still 23 vacancies.
There have been husband and wife before:
In December 2020, Justice Murali Shankar Kuppurju and his wife Justice Tamilselvi T. Valayapalayam were sworn in as judges of the Madras High Court. Earlier, Justice Vivek Puri and Justice Archana Puri were also sworn in as judges of the Punjab High Court on the same day in November 2019.
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