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.
At present, the SC has 22 judges. With Friday’s appointments, it will have six vacancies. With the elevation of Justice Banerjee, the SC will have a total of three woman judges, that includes Justices R Bhanumathi and Indu Malhotra — the most woman judges the apex court has had.
In the 68-year history of Supreme Court, there have only been seven women judges so far. Justice Fathima Beevi was the first woman judge to be elevated to Supreme Court. That was in year 1989. Most of the women judges that followed her lead spent their tenures as being the sole lady in the prestigious position. This trend was broken only in 2011, when Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai sat along with Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra- the irst time in history that there was more than one sitting woman judge.
The present SC jury shall have Justice Indu Malhotra, Justice Banumathi and Justice Indira Banerjee, with 22 other judges.
