Indu Malhotra: Here is what we know about first woman lawyer to become Supreme Court judge

The Centre has cleared senior advocate Indu Malhotra’s name for appointment as a Supreme Court judge, making her the first woman from the bar to be directly elevated to the Bench. 

Malhotra will take her oath as an apex court judge on Friday. 

On January 10, the apex court collegium - comprising of the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court - had recommended Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph Malhotra for elevation to the top court. 

Welcoming the Centre's move, senior advocate Vikas Singh, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association said, "Malhotra has all the qualities of a Judge. Knowledgeable and with human values."

Here is what we know about Indu Malhotra, the latest entrant to India's Supreme Court:

1. Indu Malhotra is the first woman from the bar to be directly elevated to the Bench.

2. Malhotra will be the seventh woman judge of the top court. She will join Justice M Fathima Beevi, Justice Sujata V Manohar, Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice R Banumati. Currently, Justice R Banumathi is the lone woman judge in the apex court.

3. Malhotra was born in 1956 in Bengaluru and moved to Delhi at a very young age.

4. Her father Om Prakash Malhotra was also a lawyer.

5. She enrolled as a lawyer in the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983.

6. Before joining the legal profession in her 20s, she taught at Miranda House College and Vivekananda College in Delhi for a brief period.

7. In 1988, she qualified as an Advocate-on-Record (AoR) in the Supreme Court.

8. Malhotra was designated as a senior advocate in 2007, only the second woman to be designated a senior advocate by the Supreme Court, after Justice Leila Seth.

9. She has represented statutory bodies like the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), before the Supreme Court.

10. She is an expert on arbitration and has appeared in various domestic and international commercial arbitrations. She has also co-authored a  book - The Law and Practice of Arbitration in India.

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