All-woman Bench takes up matrimonial transfer cases, bail matters in SC

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, December 1

After a gap of more than four years, an all-woman Bench on Thursday assembled to hear transfer petitions involving matrimonial disputes and bail matters.

The all-women Bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Bela M Trivedi – which sat in Court No. 11 of the Supreme Court – took up 32 cases listed before it, starting with 10 transfer petitions involving matrimonial disputes followed by 10 bail matters.

This is the third time in the history of the Supreme Court that an all-woman Bench has been set up. The first such Bench comprising Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was constituted in 2013 while the second one of Justices R Banumathi and Indira Banerjee was set up in 2018.

The Supreme Court didn’t have a woman judge during the first 39 years. It was only in 1989 that Justice Fathima Beevi broke the glass ceiling and was elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court. And in the last 72 years of its existence it has seen only 11 women judges. Since its inception in 1950, the Supreme Court never had more than four sitting women judges.

At present, there are three women judges in the top court—Justice Kohli, Justice Trivedi and Justice BV Nagarathna who is expected to become the first woman Chief Justice in 2027. Against the sanctioned strength of 34, the top court currently has only 27 judges including the CJI.