Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 1: The Supreme Court will witness a unique event on Thursday. A bench made up entirely of female judges will sit in courtroom number 11 of the apex court. Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Bela M. Trivedi will sit on the bench.
10 applications for transfers, ten bail cases, nine civil cases, and three criminal cases will all be heard.
This will be only the third occasion in the history of the Supreme Court when a bench of female judges will hear cases. First, in 2013 due to the absence of another judge, Justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Ranjana Prakash Desai temporarily sat together. The second occurred in 2018, when Justices Indira Banerjee and R. Banumathi decorated a bench.
There have only ever been eleven female judges on the Supreme Court. The first woman judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court was Justice Fathima Beevi. That occurred in 1989.
Following Justice Beevi’s lead was Justice Sujatha Manohar, followed by Justices Ruma Pal, and more recently Justices Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana Prakash Desai, R Banumathi, Indu Malhotra, Indira Banerjee, Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna and Bela Trivedi.
Among these judges, Justices Beevi, Manohar and Pal spent their time in Supreme Court as sole woman judge throughout their tenures.
Notably, the Supreme Court had four sitting women judges from August 2021 to September 2022, including Justices Indira Banerjee, Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna, and Bela Trivedi. The number has once again decreased to three with Justice Banerjee’s retirement in September of this year.
