Missing: Women judges in India's higher judiciary

Here's how the Supreme Court and the high courts fare on gender representation.

WrittenBy:Tanishka Sodhi
Date:
Article image
  • Share this article on whatsapp

The Supreme Court of India was inaugurated 71 years ago, but it is yet to see a woman chief justice. Indeed, male judges have always outnumbered, by a distance, female judges on the apex court bench. Same has been the case with most of the country’s 25 high courts.

That women are underrepresented in the higher judiciary is not unknown. But what’s the scale of the underrepresentation? To find out, Newslaundry looked at the gender composition of the Supreme Court and the high courts. We relied on the websites of the courts, news reports, publicly available lists to compile a database.

Here’s what we found.

Click on the dropdown menu in the chart to see the gender composition of the Supreme Court and each high court.

subscription-appeal-image

Support Independent Media

The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.

Contribute

Gender composition as on September 15, 2021.

Gender composition as on May 10, 2021.

subscription-appeal-image

Power NL-TNM Election Fund

General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.

Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?

Support now

You may also like