List of female judges of the Supreme Court of India

Emblem of the Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India, in New Delhi

This is a list of women judges of the Supreme Court of India, the highest court in the Republic of India. The list is arranged in chronological order.

The first woman to become a judge of the Supreme Court was Fathima Beevi, appointed on 6 October 1989. There have been 11 women justices in the court since then. Currently, there is just one sitting women judge out of the total 34 – Justice B. V. Nagarathna. ^{[1] [2]} Justice Nagarathna is also set to be the first female Chief Justice of India in September 2027, with a tenure of just 36 days, the third shortest in history. ^[3]

List of Judges in chronology

Key

   Incumbent

No.	Portrait	Name	Date of appointment	Date of retirement	Tenure	Immediate prior post before elevation to Supreme Court	Notes
1		Fathima Beevi	6 October 1989	29 April 1992	2 years, 206 days	Judge of the Kerala High Court	First female judge of the Supreme Court of India
2		Sujata Manohar	8 November 1994	27 August 1999	4 years, 292 days	Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court
3		Ruma Pal	28 January 2000	2 June 2006	6 years, 125 days	Judge of the Calcutta High Court	Longest-serving female judge of the Supreme Court of India
4		Gyan Sudha Misra	30 April 2010	27 April 2014	3 years, 362 days	Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court
5		Ranjana Desai	13 September 2011	29 October 2014	3 years, 46 days	Judge of the Bombay High Court
6		R. Banumathi	13 August 2014	19 July 2020	5 years, 341 days	Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court
7		Indu Malhotra	27 April 2018	13 March 2021	2 years, 320 days	Member of the High Level Committee in the Ministry of Law and Justice [4]	First woman judge who was elevated directly from the Bar Council of India
8		Indira Banerjee	7 August 2018	23 September 2022	4 years, 47 days	Chief Justice of the Madras High Court
9		Hima Kohli	31 August 2021	1 September 2024	3 years, 1 day	Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court
10		Bela Trivedi	31 August 2021	9 June 2025	3 years, 282 days	Judge of the Gujarat High Court
11		B. V. Nagarathna	31 August 2021	29 October 2027	6 years, 59 days	Judge of the Karnataka High Court	Assumed to be the first female Chief Justice of India in 2027.

See also

• List of female governors in India
• List of female lieutenant governors and administrators in India
• List of female chief ministers in India
• List of female deputy chief ministers in India
• List of female legislative speakers and chairpersons in India
• List of female opposition leaders in India
• List of female chief justices in India
• List of chief justices of India
• List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India
• List of former judges of the Supreme Court of India
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Asia

References

1. "In A First, Supreme Court Has Three Sitting Woman Judges Today | Live Law". Live Law. 2018-08-07. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
2. "Indu Malhotra: India's supreme court is getting its seventh female judge in nearly 70 years — Quartz India". qz.com. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
3. "Justice BV Nagarathna to become part of Supreme Court Collegium from …". 2025-06-22. Archived from the original on 2025-06-22.
4. "In 70th Year of Independence, India's Supreme Court to Get Seventh Woman Judge". The Wire . Retrieved 27 April 2018.