List of female chief justices in India

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This is a list of women who have served as chief justices of the high courts of India, arranged in chronological order.

Contents

The first woman to be appointed as the chief justice of an Indian high court was Leila Seth, who assumed office at the Himachal Pradesh High Court on 5 August 1991. The Kerala High Court and the Madras High Court have each had the highest number of female chief justices, with three appointments each.

Manjula Chellur served as the chief justice of three different high courts and holds the record for the longest combined tenure among female chief justices, exceeding five years. In contrast, Sonia Gokani had the shortest tenure, serving for just nine days.

To date,[ when? ] there have been 18 women chief justices across 14 high courts. At present, one woman serves as a chief justice among the 25 high courts chief justices in India.

List of female chief justices

Key

   Incumbent

No.PortraitNameDate of appointmentDate of retirementTenureHigh CourtNote
1
Leila Seth (cropped).jpg
Leila Seth 5 August 199120 October 19921 year, 76 days Himachal Pradesh High Court First female chief justice of a high court in India. [1]
2 No image available.svg Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar 15 June 199214 November 1992152 days Madras High Court First female chief justice of the Madras High Court. [2]
3 No image available.svg Sujata Manohar 15 January 199420 April 199495 days Bombay High Court First female chief justice of the Bombay High Court and the Kerala High Court. Later elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India. [3]
21 April 19947 November 1994200 days Kerala High Court
4 No image available.svg K. K. Usha 25 February 20013 July 2001128 days Kerala High Court [4]
5 No image available.svg Gyan Sudha Misra 13 July 200830 April 20101 year, 291 days Jharkhand High Court First female chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court. Later elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India. [5]
6 No image available.svg Rekha Doshit 21 June 201012 December 20144 years, 174 days Patna High Court First female chief justice of the Patna High Court. [6]
7 No image available.svg Manjula Chellur 26 September 20121 August 20141 year, 310 days Kerala High Court First female chief justice of the Calcutta High Court. [7]
6 August 201421 August 20162 years, 15 days Calcutta High Court
22 August 20164 December 20171 year, 104 days Bombay High Court
8 No image available.svg T. Meena Kumari 23 March 20133 August 2013133 days Meghalaya High Court First chief justice of the Meghalaya High Court. [8]
9 Justice R. Banumathi.jpg R. Banumathi 16 November 201312 August 2014269 days Jharkhand High Court Later elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India. [9]
10 No image available.svg Gorla Rohini 21 April 201413 April 20172 years, 357 days Delhi High Court First female chief justice of the Delhi High Court. [10]
11 Justice Indira Banerjee.jpg Indira Banerjee 5 April 20176 August 20181 year, 123 days Madras High Court Later elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India. [11]
12 No image available.svg Abhilasha Kumari 9 February 201822 February 201813 days Manipur High Court First female chief justice of the Manipur High Court. [12]
13 No image available.svg Gita Mittal 11 August 20188 December 20202 years, 119 days Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court First female chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. [13]
14 No image available.svg Vijaya Tahilramani 12 August 20186 September 20191 year, 25 days Madras High Court [14]
15 Justice Hima Kohli.jpg Hima Kohli 7 January 202130 August 2021235 days Telangana High Court First female chief justice of the Telangana High Court. Later elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India. [15]
16 No image available.svg Sonia Gokani 16 February 202325 February 20239 days Gujarat High Court First female chief justice of the Gujarat High Court. [16]
17 No image available.svg Sunita Agarwal 23 July 2023Incumbent2 years, 43 days Gujarat High Court [17]
18 No image available.svg Ritu Bahri 4 February 202410 October 2024249 days Uttarakhand High Court First female chief justice of the Uttarakhand High Court. [18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "5th August 1991: Justice Leila Seth Becomes the First Indian Woman Chief Justice of a state High Court". 5 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Former Madras CJ passes away". The Hindu. 15 August 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "Official Website of High Court of Bombay". Archived from the original on 5 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Chief Justice KK Usha". Kerala Women. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  5. ↑ "JharkhandHighCourt". Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  6. ↑ "Woman Chief Justice for Patna High Court". The Hindu . 17 June 2010. Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  7. ↑ "Manjula Chellur to become first woman Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court; Assumes office on August 5". Bar and Bench. B&B News Network. 23 July 2014. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  8. ↑ PTI (23 March 2013). "Meena Kumari sworn in as first chief justice of Meghalaya HC". The Hindu. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  9. ↑ http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/judges/sjud/rbanumathi.htm R. Banumatji, profile
  10. ↑ "Delhi gets its first woman Chief Justice". The Hindu. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "Indira Banerjee appointed Chief Justice of Madras High Court". The Hindu. 31 March 2017.
  12. ↑ Samom, Shobhapati (9 February 2018). "Justice Abhilasha Kumari is Manipur HC's first woman chief justice". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  13. ↑ "Justice Geeta Mittal is 1st woman judge of J&K HC; Justice Menon to head Delhi HC". The Economic Times. 4 August 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "Justice VK Tahilramani Appointed As Chief Justice Of Madras High Court". Live Law. 4 August 2018. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "Justice Hima Kohli takes charge as 1st woman CJ of Telangana high court". Hindustan Times. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  16. ↑ "High Court of Gujarat". gujarathighcourt.nic.in. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  17. ↑ "Hon'ble Mrs. Justice Sunita Agarwal". Allahabad High Court.
  18. ↑ "Justice Ritu Bahri becomes first woman chief justice of Uttarakhand high court". Hindustan Times. 4 February 2024.
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