New Delhi: With her elevation to the Supreme Court, 60-year-old Indira Banerjee becomes the eighth woman judge the apex court ever had.
The apex court will now have three woman judges after the elevation of Justice Indira Banerjee.
It is for the first time in the history that the Supreme Court will have three women judges. These, apart from Banerjee are Justice R Banumathi and Justice Indu Malhotra.
The Supreme Court got its first woman judge only in 1989 and the elevation of Justice Indira Banerjee creates another record in the history of the top court.
The law ministry on Friday cleared the appointment of Justice Indira Banerjee, the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court as a Supreme Court judge.
Justice Indira Banerjee started out as a lawyer on July 5, 1985 and practised in the Calcutta High Court.
An alumnus of Kolkata's Presidency College, Justice Indira Banerjee pursued her law degree from Calcutta University.
She was appointed as a permanent judge of the Calcutta High Court of February 5, 2002 and was transferred to the Delhi High Court with effect from August 8, 2016.
Indira Banerjee was elevated as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court and assumed charge on April 5, 2017 after Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul was elevated to the Supreme Court.
She is the second woman to head the chartered High Court, after Justice Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar who headed the Court between June and November 1992.
Justice Indira Banerjee’s name was recommended by the Supreme Court collegium only a fortnight back.
Along with Justice Indira Banerjee, the Centre has also cleared the appointment of Odisha High Court Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph.
Justice Vineet Saran started out as lawyer in Allahabad High Court in 1980. A former law officer for the Uttar Pradesh government, Justice Saran was also elevated to the bench in 2002. He has been Odisha High Court chief justice since February 2016.
Justice KM Joseph’s name was sent to the government for the second time after it returned the Supreme Court’s recommendation sent in January this year and asked to reconsider his name.
The rules say if the collegium recommends a name a second time, the Centre has no choice but to accept it.
