List of female chief justices in India

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

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, 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. Portrait Name Date of appointment Date of retirement Tenure High Court Note
1
Leila Seth 5 August 1991 20 October 1992 1 year, 76 days Himachal Pradesh High Court First female chief justice of a high court in India.[1]
2 Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar 15 June 1992 14 November 1992 152 days Madras High Court First female chief justice of the Madras High Court.[2]
3 Sujata Manohar 15 January 1994 20 April 1994 95 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 1994 7 November 1994 200 days Kerala High Court
4 K. K. Usha 25 February 2001 3 July 2001 128 days Kerala High Court [4]
5 Gyan Sudha Misra 13 July 2008 30 April 2010 1 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 Rekha Doshit 21 June 2010 12 December 2014 4 years, 174 days Patna High Court First female chief justice of the Patna High Court.[6]
7 Manjula Chellur 26 September 2012 1 August 2014 1 year, 310 days Kerala High Court First female chief justice of the Calcutta High Court.[7]
6 August 2014 21 August 2016 2 years, 15 days Calcutta High Court
22 August 2016 4 December 2017 1 year, 104 days Bombay High Court
8 T. Meena Kumari 23 March 2013 3 August 2013 133 days Meghalaya High Court First chief justice of the Meghalaya High Court.[8]
9 R. Banumathi 16 November 2013 12 August 2014 269 days Jharkhand High Court Later elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India.[9]
10 Gorla Rohini 21 April 2014 13 April 2017 2 years, 357 days Delhi High Court First female chief justice of the Delhi High Court.[10]
11 Indira Banerjee 5 April 2017 6 August 2018 1 year, 123 days Madras High Court Later elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India.[11]
12 Abhilasha Kumari 9 February 2018 22 February 2018 13 days Manipur High Court First female chief justice of the Manipur High Court.[12]
13 Gita Mittal 11 August 2018 8 December 2020 2 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 Vijaya Tahilramani 12 August 2018 6 September 2019 1 year, 25 days Madras High Court [14]
15 Hima Kohli 7 January 2021 30 August 2021 235 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 Sonia Gokani 16 February 2023 25 February 2023 9 days Gujarat High Court First female chief justice of the Gujarat High Court.[16]
17 Sunita Agarwal 23 July 2023 Incumbent 2 years, 20 days Gujarat High Court [17]
18 Ritu Bahri 4 February 2024 10 October 2024 249 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".
  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. 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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