Supreme Court Designates 11 Women Lawyers As Senior Advocates, Highest Ever In One Go

In a historic first, the Supreme Court designated eleven women advocates as senior advocates in one go. Out of the fifty-six lawyers who have been conferred with senior designations, eleven are women. The top court last undertook the exercise in 2019,when there were 6 women among the 37 lawyers who were conferred with Senior designation. 

The women lawyers in the latest list are : Advocate-on-Record (AoR) Shobha Gupta, AoR Swarupama Chaturvedi, AoR Liz Mathew (Anthraper), Advocate Karuna Nundy, Advocate Nisha Bagchi, AoR Uttara Babbar, Advocate Haripriya Padmanabhan, AoR Archana Pathak Dave, Advocate NS Nappinai, AoR S Janani and AoR Shirin Khajuria.

Shobha Gupta, who is known for taking up various human rights and women-related issues, was the lawyer who represented Gujarat riots victim Bilkis Bano in various proceedings, including the latest case in which the Supreme Court set aside the premature release of the convicts.

Swarupama Chaturvedi registered as an Advocate in 2000 and became an Advocate-on-Record in 2012. She is the Standing Counsel for the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Central Pollution Control Board. Between 2020-2023, she was Additional Advocate General, State of Madhya Pradesh and also formerly worked as an Assistant Professor (Law) at NLSIU, Bangalore. 

Liz Mathew (Anthraper) is an Advocate-on-Record, who graduated from the National Law School of India, Bangalore. She has worked under former Attorney General KK Venugopal as well as retired Supreme Court judge Ms. Indu Malhotra, as a chamber junior. Mathew was the Standing Counsel for the State of Kerala at Supreme Court for 5 years. She specializes in arbitration matters and matters arising out of IBC.

Karuna Nundy practices primarily as an Advocate at the Supreme Court of India. An Economics graduate from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, with law degrees from Universities of Cambridge and Columbia, Nundy's name is well known in the international legal space as well. She was recognized by Times Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022-23 and awarded for being one of the "Most Powerful Women in Business" in 2021. During her legal career, she has fought for rights of Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims and led arguments in some of the most significant cases, such as for criminalization of marital rape, legalizing of same-sex marriage, and online speech rights (Section 66A IT Act case). She has further undertaken training of judges (and other judicial actors) at the National Judicial Academy, Delhi Judicial Academy and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford. In 2016, in a stance for dignity of disabled persons, Nundy had represented Jeeja Ghosh, a person with disability taken off a plane by Spicejet, and secured relief of damages to the tune of Rs.10 lacs. Notably, she was a contributor in the reform of India's criminal laws (post Nirbhaya gangrape case) and the Food Security Act. 

Uttara Babbar became an Advocate-on-Record in 2009. She attended the National Law School of India University from 1997-2002 and thereafter pursued a Masters from Columbia Law School. She has a keen interest in comparative constitutional law and legal theory.

Haripriya Padmanabhan is an Advocate of the Supreme Court with 25 years of experience. She specializes in Commercial, Constitutional and Civil Law, and has also acted as a Court-appointed Mediator. She graduated from the National Law School, Bengaluru in 1998 and worked with M/s. AMSS (as it then was) prior to joining the chambers of Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan and then Senior Advocate KK Venugopal. Since 2008, her independent practice has included regular engagements in Insolvency & Bankruptcy cases as well as commercial arbitrations, the latter of which is an area of core interest to her. She is a mother of three children and lives in Delhi with her husband, who is also a lawyer.

Archana Pathak Dave is an Advocate-on-Record specializing in constitutional and criminal laws, with over 20 years of practice experience at the Supreme Court. In early part of her career, she practised as a Trademark Attorney at Lall Lahiri & Salhotra (Trademarks & Patents Law Firm), where she handled the department concerned with Oppositions to trademarks. She is a law graduate from Rajasthan University, Jaipur and had obtained Masters degree in Law from JNV University, Jodhpur.

NS Nappinai is an Advocate with practice centering in the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court. She is the founder of 'Cyber Saathi' - an initiative to empower through knowledge, which launched with focus on child safety online programs. She has handled a large array of cases pertaining to Constitutional, Criminal, cybercrime, IPR, corporate and commercial laws, and undertaken transactions globally. She has authored a seminal book on cyberlaws titled “Technology Laws Decoded” (in 2017). Her article on "Rethinking Social Media - Through The Prism Of Freedoms, Liberties & Democracy" is featured in Nani Palkivala's Festschrift Book.

S Janani is a first-generation lawyer, who graduated from Delhi University. She joined the legal profession in 1986, practising initially with Advocate Urmila Kapoor. She has practised mostly on the civil side in the Supreme Court, High Courts, CAT and NCDRC.

Here is what Ms. Janani had to say on her designation:

"I am grateful to the Hon'ble judges of the Supreme Court for considering me worthy of designation".

Shirin Khajuria is an Advocate-on-Record with over three decades of legal practice. She is a Standing Counsel for the State of Goa as well as Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited. Following an LL.B. from Delhi University, Khajuria had started her career as a law trainee at DCM-Shriram Foods and Fertilizers Ltd. in 1989. After a year, she had joined the chambers of retired Supreme Court judge Ms. Indu Malhotra and thereafter worked briefly with Advocate Ravinder Narain. She has also been on panel 'A' for Union of India at the Supreme Court for a number of years.

Her experience also includes a stint with the United Nations Compensation Commission, Geneva.

Here is what Ms. Khajuria had to say on her designation:

"It has been an absolute privilege and pleasure to practise at the Supreme Court for the past three decades. As a first-generation lady advocate, I feel blessed to be here today with the support of my family, friends, juniors and seniors."

The list can be found here.