Punjab & Haryana High Court has highest number of women judges in India

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, December 9

Amid concerns about under-representation of women in the higher judiciary, the government has told Parliament that only 13.5 per cent of the total judges in the higher judiciary are women, with Punjab topping the list with 15 women judges.

Three in apex court

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The Supreme Court, which was functioning with 34 judges (its sanctioned strength), has only three women judges — Justice Hima Kohli, Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Bela M Trivedi.

In response to a question from CPM MP John Brittas, Minister of State for Law and Justice (Independent Charge) Arjun Ram Meghwal told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that as on December 2, there were only 111 women judges in 25 high courts which were functioning with 790 judges against a combined sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges.

The Supreme Court, which was functioning with 34 judges (its sanctioned strength), has only three women judges — Justice Hima Kohli, Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Bela M Trivedi. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, which is functioning with 57 judges against a sanctioned strength of 85 judges, has 15 women judges, including Acting Chief Justice Ritu Bahri.

According to the minister’s reply, the Madras High Court was at number two with 12 woman judges against a sanctioned strength of 75 and working strength of 67 judges while the Bombay High Court came third with 11 women judges against a sanctioned strength of 94 and working strength of 69 judges.

The Delhi High Court, which is functioning with only 43 judges against a sanctioned strength of 60, had nine women judges while the Calcutta High Court (sanctioned strength 72 judges and working strength 52 judges) had only eight women judges.

Three high courts – Uttarakhand, Tripura and Meghalaya – didn’t have any woman judge while seven other high courts — Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Manipur, Meghalaya and Sikkim — had one woman judge each.

Highlighting under representation of women in the judiciary, the then CJI NV Ramana had on September 26, 2021, exhorted women lawyers to strongly demand 50 per cent representation and assured them of his “total support” to address the problem of gender gap in the field of law.

Noting that there had been enough suppression of women for thousands of years, Justice Ramana had said at a function organised by women lawyers to facilitate the nine newly appointed judges, including three women judges that “It’s high time we have 50 per cent representation for women in the judiciary. It’s your right. It’s not a matter of charity.”