Indu Malhotra 1st female advocate to be Supreme Court judge

The Supreme Court collegium has recommended the name of senior advocate Indu Malhotra for being elevated as Judge of the apex court.

Barring last-minute hiccups, Malhotra, who was designated as a senior advocate in 2007, will be the first woman lawyer to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court. Currently, Justice R Banumathi is the lone woman Judge in the apex court.

According to sources, the other name cleared by the collegium was that of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph, who headed the bench which in 2016 had set aside the imposition of President's Rule in the state.

In doing so, his bench had also come down heavily on the decision to impose President's Rule by the NDA Government and which had ensured the restoration in office of the Harish Rawat-led Congress government in Uttarakhand.

It remains to be seen if the Central government accepts the collegium's decision to elevate Justice Joseph to the Supreme Court, especially since the Centre has chosen not to clear the earlier recommendation by the Supreme Court collegium to transfer him Chief Justice of the High court of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Despite the recommendation, the Centre has been sitting on the file. The two appointments, once processed and finalised, will provide a much-needed breather to the apex court, which is currently short of six Judges from the sanctioned strength of 31.