Justice Banumathi 1st Woman Judge in SC Collegium After a Decade

Till now, the Supreme Court of India has had only eight women judges.

Justice R Banumathi.

(Photo: Wikipedia/Altered by The Quint)

Justice R Banumathi has been inducted to the collegium after the retirement of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on 17 November, The Leaflet reported. With this, the Supreme Court collegium has got the first female judge almost a decade after Justice Ruma Pal’s appointment.

She’s currently fifth in seniority among the judges and will have a tenure of nine months till her retirement in July 2020.

There's an obvious in the India judiciary as till now, the Supreme Court has had only 8 women judges. And currently other than Justice Banumathi there are only three women in the apex court – Justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee.

In fact, the position of Chief Justice of India has never been held by a female judge.

Justice Banumathi hails from Tamil Nadu and worked as a district and a sessions judge in various districts until she was appointed as a judge in Madras High Court in 2003.

She was then elevated to the position of Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court in 2013, and then Supreme Court in 2014.

She recently upheld the Delhi High Court’s order refusing anticipatory bail to former finance minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media Case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate and granted regular bail to Chidambaram in the same case lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation.