NEW DELHI: For the first time since it was established in 1950, the Supreme Court of India will have three women judges at the same time now.The elevation of Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph as Supreme Court judge hit the headlines hard yesterday.
The President of India on Friday appointed Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, Orissa HC CJ Vineet Saran and Uttarakhand HC CJ K M Joseph as judges of the Supreme Court.
Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa High Court Chief Justice Vineet Saran were also elevated as Supreme Court judges.Banerjee will join Justices R Bhanumathi and Indu Malhotra.
In Justice Indira Banerjee, the Supreme court has also got its eighth woman judge, after Fathima Beevi, Sujata V. Manohar,Ruma Pal, Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana Prakash Desai, R Bhanumathi and Indu Malhotra.
Justice Indu Malhotra, Justice Banerjee also had started out as a lawyer in the mid-eighties.An alumnus of Kolkata’s Presidency College, she was appointed as a high court judge in 2002 and had been elevated as a chief justice of the Madras High Court only last year.
Justice Saran was also elevated to the bench in 2002. He has been Odisha high court chief justice since February 2016.
Justice Joseph is, currently, the longest-serving Chief Justice of a HC in the country and has served as CJ of Uttarakhand for a little over four years. Justice Joseph will have a longer tenure as SC judge as compared to Justices Banerjee and Saran.
The Supreme Court collegium has been recommending Justice K M Joseph’s name for the past seven months now. After the appointment of these three new judges, the number of judges will be 25 in the Supreme Court.
