New Delhi: In the last 17 months, the Supreme Court Collegium has recommended only 20 women for judgeship in the country’s high courts—a small fraction of the total 136 fresh recommendations it sent to the Centre during this period, when three different Chief Justices of India (CJI) were at its helm.
An analysis by ThePrint has revealed that in contrast, there were 116 male lawyers and judicial officers among these 136, highlighting the dominance of men in the judiciary.
This lack of diversity in the higher judiciary is also underscored by the conspicuous absence of female judges in the country’s top court, barring Justice B.V. Nagarathna.
What is more telling is that while the collegium had sent just 20 names of women, the Centre has notified only 11 of them. Among the women’s names notified, nine were judicial officers who were elevated to the position of HC judges, while only two were lawyers.
In the last seven to eight months, the number of female judges in the Supreme Court has slipped from three to one, after the retirement of Justices Bela Trivedi and Hima Kohli in June this year and September last year, respectively.
What is even more telling is that all high courts, barring the Gujarat HC, have male chief justices. Gujarat HC’s Sunita Aggarwal is the only woman chief justice in the country.
ThePrint had reported in February that eight high courts in India had only one woman judge—Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Orissa, Patna and Sikkim.
Among these, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have 16 judges each, while Himachal Pradesh has 12. Madhya Pradesh had 33, Patna 34 and Orissa 18. Manipur and Sikkim have just four and three judges on the bench.
In March this year, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal told Parliament in response to a question about the appointment of women in the judiciary that since 2014, six women judges had been appointed in the Supreme Court.
Meghwal also told Parliament that in the last decade or so, 162 women judges had been appointed to the country’s high courts. He said the current strength of women judges in HCs stood at 110 out of 751 judges across HCs against a sanctioned strength of 1,122.
Speaking to ThePrint, former judge of the Patna High Court Justice Anjana Prakash underlined the “woefully inadequate” representation of women judges in high courts.
“I would think it’s woefully inadequate and there should definitely be an increased gender representation. The government should take quick action on the recommendations of the Collegium to align the figure with the number of practising women lawyers presently,” she said.
Also Read: 8 of 25 high courts have only 1 woman judge. Data shows poor representation in higher judiciary
What data reveals
The data shows that of the 20 women recommended by the Collegium, only seven were lawyers chosen from the Bar, while the rest were judicial officers employed with the subordinate judiciary. As per established practice, for every judge from the district judiciary, three should be from the Bar.
With few women lawyers nominated for High Court judgeship since March last year, this ratio appears to have been breached so far in the case of women judges.
Moreover, despite the staggeringly low figure of women, nine out of the 20 women recommended by the SC collegium have not been notified by the Centre yet.
Of the nine names that haven’t been notified yet, five are advocates, including Tejal Vashi, Shwetasree Majumder, Sreeja Vijayalakshmi, Sheetal Mirdha, and Aarti Arun Sathe. Their names had been recommended for judgeship to the Gujarat, Delhi, Kerala and Bombay High Courts, respectively.
Advocate Shwetasree Majumdar, an intellectual property (IP) expert whose name was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium in August last year for judgeship in the Delhi High Court, has withdrawn her consent for appointment, citing the Centre’s inaction and inordinate delay in clearing her file, ThePrint had reported. This prompted the CJI to observe how the delayed process resulted in the loss of a competent candidate.
On the other hand, four women judicial officers are still awaiting their notification—Mandeep Pannu, Shalini Singh Nagpal, Rupinderjit Chahal and Aradhana Sawhney—all of whom were recommended towards the end of July this year, for appointment as judges of the Punjab and Haryana HC.
Among the names notified by the Centre are Justices Augustine Devadoss, Maria Clete, R. Poornima, Nivedita Prakash Mehta, Tirumala Devi Eada, Renuka Yara, Renu Bhatnagar, Soni Shrivastava, Smita Das De, Shail Jain, Madhu Jain and Sangeeta Sharma.
‘Not reservation, want more inclusivity’
Senior advocate Priya Kumar also told ThePrint that while most women lawyers don’t want a separate category or reservation for women among judges, they do want more inclusivity in a space dominated by men.
“Right now, however, I feel the space is dominated by men. This is not a gender-conflict issue but an inclusiveness issue, be it gender, regional or other forms of inclusivity. They should look at the pool of deserving and competent female candidates while selecting HC judges,” she said.
Emphasising the need for more inclusivity, Kumar said, there was a “treasure trove” of women who need to be selected because of their competence.
“Unfortunately, today, because the decision is being made by one section. Having said that, I feel the Delhi HC is leading on this front. We have female judges and this year, a record number of females became senior advocates in one go. Recognise women as competent professionals, not just because of their gender. It’s also a question of opening up and giving space in society,” Kumar said.
Underlining that judges are agents of change in a society, Kumar said diversity and inclusion make the justice system more robust. “There should be timely recommendations of women lawyers, so that they have the opportunity to rise and occupy the highest positions in the system.”
3 CJIs & their recommendations
A break-up of the 136 recommendations shows that the maximum number, 50 to be precise, were made under the tenure of former CJI Sanjiv Khanna. The incumbent CJI B.R. Gavai was a close second with 46 recommendations till date.
Former CJI D.Y. Chandrachud’s tenure saw 39 recommendations by the Collegium, too.
However, ThePrint calculated only a part of his two-year tenure from March 2024 to November last year, when he retired. This is because the two CJIs following him—Justice Khanna and incumbent Justice Gavai—had relatively shorter tenures in the top office.
Chandrachud’s tenure began on 9 November 2022 and lasted a little over two years. However, CJI Khanna’s tenure was close to six months. Similarly, CJI Gavai has been in office a little over two months. He took oath as CJI on 14 May this year and his term is expected to end on 23 November, and could still see a more significant chunk of recommendations on the way.
On the representation of women, the figures paint a grim picture. Only six women were recommended by the SC collegium under CJI Chandrachud for appointment as HC judges. Only six more recommendations were made under CJI Khanna’s tenure as well.
Gavai’s tenure so far has fared marginally better, with eight female names being recommended for judgeship to the HCs. But he still has some months to go with his term set to end in late November.
Among the 116 men whose names were suggested for HC judgeship between March 2024 and the present, a majority or 59 were advocates who were being elevated to judgeship, while 57 were from the ranks of judicial officers.
This was in contrast with the recommendations for female judges, where more female judicial officers than advocates were chosen for various HCs.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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This is another problem being faced by the central government. As such with every recommendation they have to weigh and see who would become CJ. If that person is perceived not to be in favour of the ruling clan’s scheme of things the recommendation remains on paper. Now more serious problem is with the ladies. Madras HC has one ex.BJPian women Judge, Bombay HC will have one. The collegium should recommend more and more BJPians so that they will be appointed without delay. Only ED and EC have been converted into BJPian department. The judiciary also should fall in line so that the top leadership can have a peaceful sleep.