SC To Have All Women Bench Today

The Supreme Court will witness the rarity of an all-women bench as Justice R Banumathi and Justice Indira Banerjee will sit in Court No.12 on September 5 and 6. The bench will hear fresh admission matters.

This is for the first time a regular bench comprising only women is being constituted. Though in 2013, there was an instance where Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra and Justice Ranjana Prasad Desai sat together, it was an 'accidental' constitution occasioned by the absecne of the presiding judge Justice Aftab Alam.

So, this is a historic moment, which needs to be cherished in campaign for gender equality. Having said that, it is also necessary to mention that the attempt here is not to reduce the judges to their gender. Their gender identity is highlighted, not to circumscribe their personality, but to address the elephant in the room - the startling gender imbalance in judiciary.

Of late, things have started to brighten up as regards gender balance. For the first time ever, the Supreme Court has now three women judges. Justice Indu Malhotra became the first woman lawyer to be directly elevated from the bar in April 2018. Currently, there are three women Chief Justices of High Courts - Justice Gita Mittal (J&K HC), Justice V K Tahilramani (Madras HC) and Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai (Acting CJ, Sikkim HC)