ME News Bureau: The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India created a history on Thursday as they directly elevated senior advocate Indu Malhotra, the first woman lawyer to be directly elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court, as a judge.
The Collegium also recommended the elevation of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph to the Supreme Court, making it the number of judges in the top court to 27, as and when approved by the Centre.
Malhotra, 61, will be the seventh woman to be appointed as SC judge after Fathima Beevi, Sujatha V Manohar, Ruma Pal, Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana P Desai and sitting SC judge R Banumathi, who were all elevated from high courts.
Currently, Justice R Banumathi, is the lone woman judge in the apex court and will retire in 2020. If the government accepts Collegium’s recommendations, Malhotra will have a term of nearly four years.
She has practiced in Delhi for the last 35 years. Malhotra comes from a famiily of lawyers as her Father O P Malhotra was a Senior Advocate and her elder brother and sister too are lawyers.
Born in 1956 in then Bangalore, she completed her schooling from Carmel Convent and graduated from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, in Delhi. She earned a law degree from Delhi University, and started practising in 1983.
