Justice Indu Malhotra, the first woman judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court Bench directly from the Bar, completed her last working day, virtually hearing cases alongside Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad A. Bobde on Friday.
Justice Malhotra, in an emotional address, said she was “leaving the court with a great sense of fulfilment”.
With Chief Justice Bobde and Justice A.S. Bopanna looking on, Justice Malhotra said she was grateful for the opportunity which enabled her to contribute to the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court.
At a function organised later in the day by the Supreme Court Bar Association, Justice Malhotra said, “A judge derives great satisfaction when a long drawn litigation is brought to a close or justice is done to those who are voiceless.” Judges appreciated the fact that the institution was “far greater than the individuals who compose the Bench”, she noted.
Justice Malhotra was on the Constitution Bench that unanimously decriminalised homosexuality between adults.
She is known for her lone dissenting opinion in the Sabarimala judgment. She held that the prohibition on the entry of women of certain age into the temple was in vogue for time immemorial and qualified to be an “essential practice”. She cautioned judges against imposing their personal views, morality or rationality with respect to the form of worship of a deity.
She was later made part of the three-member in-house committee led by Justice Bobde, which inquired into the sexual harassment allegations made against then CJI Ranjan Gogoi by an apex court staffer.
Her tenure on the Bench was slightly less than three years. She took office on April 27, 2018.
A fine judge: CJI
Chief Justice Bobde said he had not seen a finer judge than Justice Malhotra.
A few days ago, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, with whom she shared the Bench, called her an “icon”.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said Justice Malhotra’s retirement had come too swiftly.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said the court needed more women judges.
It was a Collegium led by Chief Justice (retd.) Dipak Misra that recommended then senior advocate Malhotra as a judge of the Supreme Court in January 2018.
She was chosen in a rare recognition of her professional talent and contribution to law. She was the eighth lawyer to be directly appointed to the Supreme Court Bench and only the seventh woman judge in the court’s history.
Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first woman Supreme Court judge, appointed 39 years after the court was established in 1950. The second woman judge was Justice Sujata V. Manohar, who was appointed in 1994 for a five-year tenure. The other five are Justices Ruma Pal, Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana Prakash Desai (who was part of the Bench that confirmed the death penalty of the lone 26/11 Mumbai attacks convict Ajmal Kasab) and R. Banumathi, who was one of the judges who confirmed the death sentence for four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape appeals.
Justice Indira Banerjee is the only woman judge now in the apex court. With Justice Malhotra’s retirement, the number of judges in the court will reduce to 29. The sanctioned strength is 34.
