Supreme Court ex-judge Ranjana Prakash Desai first woman to head PCI

New Delhi, June 17

The government on Friday notified the appointment of former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai as chairperson of the Press Council of India.

Justice (retd) Desai, 72, is the first woman judge to head the PCI. She succeeds Justice (retd) CK Prasad, who demitted office in November 2021. The PCI chief’s post had since been lying vacant. Justice (retd) Desai had recently headed the J&K Delimitation Commission. She also chairs the five-member committee the Uttarakhand Government constituted to draft the uniform civil code.

She passed Bachelor of Arts from the Elphinstone College in 1970 and Bachelor of Law from Government Law College, Bombay, in 1973.

She joined the legal profession on July 30, 1970, and was appointed government pleader in 1979. Later, she rose to become special public prosecutor for preventive detention matters in 1986.

Justice (retd) Desai was elevated to the Bench of the Bombay High Court on April 15, 1996, and as judge of the SC on September 13, 2011. She retired from the apex court on October 29, 2014.

With her appointment, the mandated three-member search committee for the selection of Prasar Bharati chairman and CEO is now complete. The public broadcaster has not had a regular chairman since previous chairman Surya Prakash exited.