New Delhi, April 26: Indu Malhotra, a senior advocate has been appointed as a Supreme Court judge on Thursday. With this, Malhotra has become the first woman to be elevated directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court to be the and only the seventh woman judge Supreme Court has ever had. It must be noted that Malhotra will also be the second woman sitting judge of the Supreme Court. Justice R Banumathi is the sole sitting woman judge in the Supreme Court for over three years now.

On Wednesday, the government cleared the name of the 62-year old senior advocate for appointment as a Supreme Court judge.  Malhotra’s name was unanimously cleared by the Collegium comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

Here’s All You Need to Know About India’s First Woman Lawyer to Become SC Judge:

  1. Coming from a family of lawyers, Indu Malhotra joined the profession in 1983. She was appointed as a Senior Advocate in 2007.

  2. Appointed as the seventh woman judge of the apex court since independence, Malhotra will add to the existing strength of 24 judges in the top court.

  3. Indu Malhotra will also be the second woman sitting judge of the Supreme Court.Justice R Banumathi is the sole sitting woman judge in the Supreme Court for over three years now.

  4. Only six women judges have made it to the Supreme Court since India’s Independence. In the first 39 years of the Supreme Court, no woman was appointed as the Supreme Court Judge.

  5. Malhotra was one of the two names recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment as Supreme Court judge. The other name recommended was that of Justice KM Joseph, the current Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court.

  6. Malhotra had a specialisation in arbitration law, Malhotra was part of a committee, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge B N Srikrishna, which called for creation of an Arbitration Promotion Council of India.

  7. She was the second woman after Leila Seth to be elevated by the Supreme Court to the designation of a Senior Advocate and secured first position in the Advocate-on-Record examination for the top court.

  8. During her career so far, Malhotra has served as the Standing Counsel for the State of Haryana in the apex court and represented several corportation.

  9. In 1989, Justice Fathima Beevi was appointed as the first woman judge of the Supreme Court.

  10. The other woman judges of the Supreme Court so far are Justice Sujatha Manohar, Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, Justice Ranjana Desai are the other women judges appointed to the apex court.

On Thursday, Supreme Court refused to give an urgent hearing to a mentioning by a group of Supreme Court Bar Association lawyers, with 100 signatures, seeking a stay on Justice KM Joseph not being elevated to the apex Court.  In a press conference held today, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad finally revealed the reasons behind the Centre’s refusal to clear the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice KM Joseph to the apex court.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2018 03:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).