Supreme Court Collegium Gets Woman Member After Over A Decade As Justice Banumathi Becomes Part Of The Body

The Supreme Court Collegium has got a woman member after more than a decade with Justice R Banumathi becoming its part, as Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi retired recently.

Before Justice Banumathi, Justice Ruma Pal, one of the longest-serving women Supreme Court judges, was part of the SC Collegium system for three years until her retirement on June 4, 2006. She had been appointed Supreme Court judge on January 28, 2000.

Justice Banumathi, who hails from Tamil Nadu, is now among the top five senior judges of the top court, who as per norms, are part of the Supreme Court Collegium, and recommend name of judges for appointment in various high courts.

Besides Justice Banumathi, Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, Justice N V Ramana, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice R F Nariman are part of the Supreme Court Collegium.

Justice Banumathi will be in the SC Collegium till July 19, 2020, when she will demit office on retirement.

Born on July 20, 1955, she entered the Tamil Nadu Higher Judicial Service as a direct recruit District Judge in 1988, and worked as District and Sessions Judge in various districts before being elevated as a Judge of Madras High Court on April 3, 2003.

Justice Banumathi took the charge as the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court on November 16, 2013, and was instrumental in improving the infrastructure of the district judiciary, recruitment and filling up vacancies of ministerial staff. She has published handbooks for the guidance of judicial officers and staff members.

She became a judge of the Supreme Court on August 13, 2014.

Beside Justice Banumathi, Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice Indira Banerjee are the other two women judges in the Supreme Court.

The other women who served the post of judges as the top court are former Justice Fathima Beevi, Justice Sujata V Manohar, Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and Justice Ranjana P Desai.