In a first, woman lawyer elevated as Supreme Court Judge
In 2007, as senior counsel Indu was 2nd woman designated as senior advocate by SC.
New Delhi: For the first time in the Supreme Court’s history, senior woman lawyer Indu Malhotra has been elevated directly from the Bar as a Judge of the court.
In the last two years, senior advocates Rohinton Nariman, Uday Lalit and L. Nageswara Rao were directly appointed as Supreme Court judges, without serving as High Court judges. However, Ms Malhotra, 61, is the first woman lawyer to make it to the Supreme Court without having served in a High Court.
In 2007, Ms Malhotra, a senior counsel who has been practising law in the Supreme Court for 30 years, became the second woman to be designated as senior advocate by the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, the collegium comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, at its meeting, recommended the elevation of Ms Malhotra and Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph as apex court judges. The law ministry is expected to process this and the two are likely to be appointed within a fortnight. Since the Supreme Court’s inception in 1950, six woman judges have been appointed. They are Justices M. Fathima Beevi, Sujata Manohar, Ruma Pal, Ranjana Desai, Gyan Sudha Misra and R. Banumathi. Ms Malhotra will be the seventh woman to be a Supreme Court judge.
Born in Bengaluru, Ms Malhotra was inspired by her lawyer father O.P. Malhotra to take up the profession.
Indu Malhotra is arbitration expert
Senior lawyer Indu Malhotra, who will become the Supreme Court judge, is the daughter of noted lawyer Om Prakash Malhotra.
She was enrolled as a lawyer in the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983. She will have a tenure of little over four years as apex court judge.
In 1988, Malhotra qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court.
She has served as standing counsel for the state of haryana and represented statutory bodies like the Delhi Development Authority, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Indian Council for Agricultural Research, before the Supreme Court
Ms Malhotra is an expert in arbitration and has authored the third edition of The Law and Practice of Arbitration and Conciliation, 2014. The senior lawyer has appeared in various domestic and international commercial arbitrations.
She has been a part of law and justice ministry’s high level committee to review ‘Institutionalisation of Arbitration Mechanism in India’.
She is associated with NGO Save Life Foundation and was the counsel in the 2013 case when Supreme Court recommended laws for good Samaritans who save lives in road accidents.
She has appeared in a number of educational matters relating to admissions, appointments in colleges and other institutions. She has also appeared in a number of cases relating to environment. She has also served as amicus curiae.