In a landmark moment, President Ram Nath Kovind approved the appointment of Justice BV Nagarathna, and eight others to the Supreme Court, paving the way for her to be the primary woman magistrate of India (CJI) in 2027. After the new judges take oath, the Supreme Court will have a working strength of 33, with only 1 vacancy.
Justice Nagarathna is presently a judge at Karnataka judicature, and is among the three women judges whose names were cleared by the President on Thursday. the 2 other women judges are, Telangana court magistrate Hima Kohli and justice Bela Trivedi of the Gujarat court.
The Supreme Court currently has only a lone woman judge, Justice Indira Banerjee, who is ready to retire in 2022. Till date the apex court has had only eight women judges.
The other names recommended for elevation were that of Karnataka judicature jurist Abhay Oka, Gujarat court justice Vikram Nath, Sikkim court justice JK Maheshwari, justice CT Ravikumar of Kerala state supreme court, and justice MM Sundaresh of the Madras tribunal.
The collegium within the Supreme Court comprising CJI NV Ramana, and justices Uday U Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao had cleared the nine names for appointment to the country’s top court on August 17.
Justice Nagarathna, who started as a lawyer in Bengaluru, are going to be the second CJI in her family, as her father, ES Venkataramiah, was the CJI for nearly six months in 1989. She was appointed to Karnataka judicature as an extra judge in February 2008, and made a permanent judge two years later.
As an advocate she treated cases per constitutional law, law, and jurisprudence, and as a justice of Karnataka court she delivered judgements on regulation of electronic media, on education policies etc.
