New Delhi:Senior advocate Indu Malhotra would be first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the supreme court. The Uttarakhand high court chief justice KM Joseph is also going to be new judge in the apex court.
The supreme court collegium has recommended the names of Indu and Joseph for appointment as judges of the apex court. The collegium, in its meeting on January 10, has also recommended the name of Allahabad high court additional judge Sheo Kumar Singh-I for appointment as permanent judge of the same high court.
The collegium is comprised of chief justice Dipak Misra, and justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.
The Uttarakhand high court chief justice K M Joseph was in news for he was part of the bench which in 2016 had quashed the imposition of President’s Rule in the state. Joseph was appointed as permanent judge of the Kerala high court in 2004 and later transferred to Uttarakhand high court where he become chief justice in 2014.
Indu Malhotra has the distinction becoming first women judge in the supreme court from the bar. Malhotra was designated as a senior advocate in 2007. She will be the seventh woman judge since independence to make it to the supreme court. At present, justice R Banumathi is the lone woman judge in the apex court.
Since Independence, only six women judges have made it to the apex court as judges and the first appointment was of justice M Fathima Beevi in 1989, 39 years after the setting up of the Supreme Court in 1950.
Justice Fathima Beevi was elevated to the apex court after her retirement as judge of the Kerala High Court. After serving the top court till April 29, 1992, she was later appointed as the Governor of Tamil Nadu.
Justice Sujata V Manohar, chief justice of Kerala high court, justice Ruma Pal, justice Gyan Sudha Mishra, chief justice of Jharkhand high court, justice Ruma Pal and justice Ranjana Prakash Desai were the other judges who were judges in the supreme court.
Justices Gyan Sudha Mishra and Ranjana Prakash Desai had created a history by holding the court together as an all-women division bench for a day in 2013. In the 67-year history of the Supreme Court, there have been only two occasions when it has had two sitting women judges together, the first being Justices Misra and Desai and later Justices Desai and Banumathi.
