Three new Supreme Court appointments were announced yesterday, as well as that of Senior Counsel Hri Kumar Nair as the new deputy attorney-general.

High Court judge Steven Chong Horng Siong, 59, will be elevated as judge of appeal, while current Deputy Attorney-General Tan Siong Thye, 62, and Judicial Commissioner Kannan Ramesh, 51, will become High Court judges, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement yesterday.

All three judges were appointed by President Tony Tan Keng Yam, on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. They will assume office on April 1.

With their appointments, the Supreme Court - which comprises the High Court and Court of Appeal - will have a total of 18 judges, including five judges of appeal and the chief justice. In addition, there are eight judicial commissioners, who are appointed for a fixed term, five senior judges and 12 international judges.

Mr Nair, who is a director at law firm Drew & Napier and has more than 25 years of legal experience, will begin his three-year term as deputy attorney-general from March 1, joining Mr Tan - who takes his new office a month later - and Mr Lionel Yee.

Mr Nair, 50, was an MP from 2006 to 2015, and appointed senior counsel in 2008.

Drew & Napier chief executive officer and Senior Counsel Davinder Singh yesterday described him as "the best of the best" among lawyers, adding that Mr Nair would serve the country with distinction.

"We in Drew & Napier will always remember him for his immeasurable contributions, warmth and generosity of spirit," he said.

Law Society president Gregory Vijayendran said yesterday that Mr Nair will bring to his new role his strength of depth in both civil and criminal law.

"Lawyers who have dealt with him consider him to be incisive, diligent, fair-minded and yet for all his intellectual rigour, affable to a fault," he said.

Justice Chong was appointed judicial commissioner in 2009, and a High Court judge in 2010, after more than 20 years in private practice.

He assumed the position of attorney-general in June 2012 and was reappointed as a High Court judge two years later.

Mr Vijayendran said Justice Chong's rise to the apex court has been eagerly anticipated by the Bar.

Mr Tan joined the legal service in 1979. He was previously a prosecutor in the Attorney-General's Chambers and then chief district judge of the Subordinate Courts, which is now the State Courts.

He was appointed judicial commissioner in 2013 and was elevated to the Bench the following year. He has been deputy attorney-general since February 2015.

Judicial Commissioner Ramesh, who was appointed in 2015, was previously managing partner of Tan Kok Quan Partnership for nine years.

As judicial commissioner, he presided over civil matters, including the corporate restructuring of Pacific Andes Resources Development and its associates.