Even as the Supreme Court has the highest ever number of sitting female judges in its history, the representation of women remains low. Only 12% of the total working judges in the apex court and the high courts are women, data from Union Ministry of Law and Justice shows.
There are 677 sitting judges in both Supreme Court and high courts, of which, only 81 are women – making the representation of woman judges in the total working strength to just 12%.
With the induction of three female judges in the apex court on Tuesday, there are four sitting woman judges — the highest ever number in its history. While the step was historic, the representation of women remained low — just 12%, among the working strength of 33 judges, the data shows. And one post is vacant according to the data updated on Wednesday.
The sanctioned strength of judges across 25 high courts in India is 1,098. Of these, 454 posts were vacant, according to the data up to July 20. Among the 644 working judges, only 77 are women, accounting for just 12% of the sitting strength.
Only Madras High Court has woman judges in double digits. Out of the working strength of 58 judges, the Madras High Court has 13 woman judges – more than 22% representation.
It is followed by the Bombay High Court having eight women among 63 sitting judges – about 13% representation. The Allahabad and the Punjab and Haryana High Courts have seven female judges each. While women representation is only 7% out of Allahabad court’s 94 judges, in the Punjab and Haryana high courts, women representation is 15% among 46 sitting judges.
Delhi and Karnataka have six women sitting judges while Gujarat has just five. Calcutta and Kerala courts have four woman judges each.
Telangana and Chhattisgarh have two woman judges each while Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have three each.
At least five states, which are Manipur, Meghalaya, Bihar, Tripura and Uttarakhand, don’t have a single woman judge. Seven out of 25 high courts have just one female judge, according to the ministry data. These are: Gauhati, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Ladakh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan and Sikkim.
According to the ministry, the appointment of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts is made under Articles 124, 217 and 224 of the Constitution of India, which do not provide for reservation for any caste or class of persons.
However, the government has been requesting the Chief Justices of High Courts that while sending proposals for appointment of judges, due consideration be given to suitable candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities and women to ensure social diversity in appointment of judges in high courts.
The Supreme Court of India, which came into existence in 1950, got its first woman judge 39 years later when Justice Fatima Beevi was appointed in 1989. No woman has been appointed as the Chief Justice so far.
At present, there are four sitting woman judges after three new woman judges were sworn-in on Tuesday — Justices Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna and Bela M Trivedi. Justice Indira Banerjee, who was appointed in 2018, is also serving.
Justice BV Nagarathna is in line to become the first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027.
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