After more than a decade, the Supreme Court Collegium has a woman member with Justice R. Banumathi becoming its part after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi retired on Sunday (17 November).

Before her, Justice Ruma Pal, one of the longest-serving women SC judges, was the part of the Collegium system for three years until her retirement on 4 June, 2006. She had been appointed apex court judge on 28 January, 2000.

Justice Banumathi, who hails from Tamil Nadu, is now among the top five senior judges of the top court, who as per norms, are part of the Supreme Court Collegium, and recommend name of judges for appointment in various high courts.

Beside Justice Banumathi, Chief Justice of India-designate S.A. Bobde, Justices N.V. Ramana, Arun Mishra and R.F. Nariman are part of the Collegium.

Justice Banumathi will be in the Collegium till 19 July, 2020, when she will demit office on retirement.

Born on 20 July, 1955, she entered the Tamil Nadu Higher Judicial Service as a direct recruit District Judge in 1988, and worked as District and Sessions Judge in various districts before being elevated as a Judge of Madras High Court on 3 April, 2003.

Justice Banumathi took the charge as the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court on 16 November, 2013, and was instrumental in improving the infrastructure of the district judiciary, recruitment and filling up vacancies of ministerial staff. She had published handbooks for the guidance of judicial officers and staff members.

She became a judge of the Supreme Court on 13 August, 2014.

Beside Justice Banumathi, Justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee are the other two women judges in the apex court.

The other women who served the post of judges as the top court are former Justices Fathima Beevi, Sujata V Manohar, Gyan Sudha Misra and Ranjana P. Desai.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)