After a gap of nearly four years, the Supreme Court got a woman judge on Friday, when Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Gyan Sudha Misra was elevated. She was sworn in by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan in the First Court Hall. She is the fourth woman judge of the Supreme Court after Justices Fatima Beevi, Sujata Manohar, and Ruma Pal, who retired in June 2006.
Asked about her elevation, Justice Misra told The Hindu: “I feel that I am representing womenfolk in the Supreme Court. I feel happy that the Chief Justice of India and other judges in the collegium have reposed faith in me and in the ability of women.”
Chief Justices of the Madras and Bombay High Courts H.L. Gokhale and Anil Ramesh Dave were also sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court. With these appointments, its strength has gone up to 30 as against the sanctioned number of 31.
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While Justices Misra and Gokhale will have a four-year tenure, it will be about six and half years for Justice Dave.
Justice Misra (61) was appointed judge of the Patna High Court in March 1994 and soon after transferred to the Rajasthan High Court. After a 14-year tenure there, she was elevated Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court in Ranchi in July 2008.
Justice Gokhale (61) was appointed Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court in January 1994 and transferred to the Gujarat High Court the very next month. He was made permanent judge of the Bombay High Court in January 1995 and retransferred there in February 1999. He was acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court for a brief period in 2007 and appointed Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in March 2007. In March 2009, he was transferred to the Madras High Court.
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Justice Dave (58) was appointed Additional Judge of the Gujarat High Court in September 1995 and made permanent in June 1997. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in January 2008 and transferred to the Bombay High Court in February this year.