Senior Advocate Indu Malhotra takes oath of office as SC Judge, becomes 1st woman lawyer to become SC Judge directly

April 27,2018:

On Friday, Senior Advocate Indu Malhotra was administered the oath of office as a Supreme Court Judge by CJI Dipak Misra, making her the first woman lawyer to enter the top judiciary directly.

With Justice Malhotra joining the bench, the strength of the Supreme Court is now 25, against the sanctioned strength of 31, including the CJI.

Justice Malhotra was administered oath of office and secrecy in a ceremony held in Chief Justice's Court in Supreme Court.

Indu Malhotra, 61, became the second woman lawyer to be designated as a senior advocate by the SC in August 2007, three decades after the honour was first bestowed on Leila Seth, who went on to become the First Woman Chief Justice of a High Court. Seth was designated as a senior advocate in 1977.

Malhotra has practised in Delhi for the last 35 years, mostly in Supreme Court.

She earned a law degree from Faculty of Law, Delhi University, and started practising in 1983. In 1988, she stood first in tough Advocate-on-Record test and became part of select group of lawyers who alone can file petitions in SC.

She has authored a treatise on ‘Laws on Industrial Disputes’ and also ‘Commentary on the Law and Practice of Arbitration in India’.