Madras HC Only One In India With 12 Women Judges

The recent swearing-in of seven lawyers to the Madras High Court as judges has shot the number of women judges to a dozen. Thus, making the Madras HC with most number of women judges in the country. With the increase in the number of judges, the tally of total working strength in the High Court has reached up to 63 against its sanctioned 75 judges.

Chief Justice Indira Banerjee administered their oath of office and Advocate General Vijay Narayan welcomed them to the high court. He spoke about Justice P.T. Asha who hails from Coonoor and was born on August 22, 1966. Her father Achuthan Nair was a former Army officer and she studied law from Madras Law College in 1998.

Asha is the only woman amongst the seven advocates who swore in as judges in the Madras High Court and that has brought the overall number of women lawyers in the HC up. Apart from her, Justice Nirmal Kumar, Justice Subramonium Prasad, Justice Anand Venkatesh, Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan, Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy and Justice C Saravanan also became Madras HC judges.

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After completing her education, she started her career by joining the office of Justice V. Ramasubramanian, a senior judge of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. She also contributed as part of the court-appointed commission to research the working of the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai.

Asha is the only woman amongst the seven advocates who swore in as judges in the Madras High Court and that has brought the overall number of women lawyers in the HC up.

Earlier in December, Madras HC had sworn in six lawyers to become judges and four of them were women. S. Ramathilagam, R. Tharani, P. Rajamanickam, T. Krishnavalli, R. Pongiappan and R. Hemalatha, all belonging to the 1991 batch of Civil Judges (Junior Division) swore in as judges at that time. At that time, the Madras HC had become the second high court with most number of women judges after Bombay High Court which has 11 women judges. But now it has left Bombay HC behind to become the high court with most number of women judges.

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