Why The Image Of Three Women Judges Being Sworn-In To Apex Court Sparks Hope

Women judges at Supreme Court: Making history today, three women- Justices Hima Kohli, Bela Trivedi and BV Nagarathna, were sworn in as Supreme Court judges. This is the most number of women judges to be appointed to the Supreme Court together. Their swearing-in also brings the total number of women judges at Supreme Court to four, out of 33- the highest in our history so far. To put things in perspective, there have been only 11 women Supreme Court judges till date.

This historic swearing-in ceremony is important for another reason. With her appointment, Justice BV Nagaratha is now in line to be elevated to the post of Chief Justice of India in 2027. If all goes well, then she would become India's first ever woman CJI in the said year.

Justice Nagarathna, who was previously attached to the Karnataka High Court, said in her farewell note on August 27 that with access to the right opportunities, each woman advocate can achieve her dreams. "I, therefore, urge each one of you to seek out these opportunities armed with faith in yourself and stride ahead to achieve all that you want to and also give back to society," she added.

The hopes of Indian women now rest on the shoulders of women in the Indian judiciary, hoping that women advocates and judges will pay heed to BV Nagarathna's words and give it back to society as and when the opportunity arises. In a country where a woman gets raped every 15  minutes, where 20 women die in a day due to dowry related violence or harassment and where marital rape is still not considered a crime, we need more women in judiciary at every step of the way, leading to the top chair.

The road to Supreme Court has not been easy for women justices. Even at their best representation, women judges only form a mere 12 percent of all judges at the Supreme Court today. This is far far away from the gender-balance that we seek at the top court, but hey, it is a start.

We have to remember the stigma that women in various fields have to overcome to be able to break into the top echelons of their respective fields and the judiciary is not an exception. The first woman judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court of India was Fatima Beevi, who got her appointment in 1989. That's 39 years after the establishment of the Apex Court in a free India and some 97 years after Cornelia Sorabji became the first woman in the country to clear the Bachelor of Civil Laws (BCL) exam in 1892 and set the ball rolling.

It has taken decades for us to witness three women judges being sworn in at the Supreme Court together, but these pictures could end up motivating more and more judges and advocates to have bigger aspirations for themselves because the sky is indeed the limit.

Views expressed are the author's own.

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Justice BV Nagarathna Could Become The First Woman Chief Justice Of India