On June 5, India’s higher judiciary achieved a historic feat, when, for the first time, four women came to be serving simultaneously as Chief Justices of High Courts.

 

The moment was marked by the swearing-in of Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai of the Sikkim High Court as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court on Friday. She joins Justice Sunita Agarwal of the Gujarat High Court, Justice Revati Mohite Dere of the Meghalaya High Court and Justice Lisa Gill of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

 

Justice Agarwal, who was elevated from the Allahabad High Court, has been serving as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court since July 2023. Justice Mohite Dere, formerly a judge of the Bombay High Court, assumed office as Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court in January this year, while Justice Gill, elevated from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, took oath as Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in April.

 
 

The development is a significant marker in the long journey of women in the higher judiciary, even as their representation on the Bench remains modest.

 

According to data placed by the Union government before Parliament earlier this year, there were 116 women judges out of a working strength of 781 judges across the High Courts as of February 2026, accounting for 14.85 per cent of the sitting judiciary.

 

While this marks a modest increase from 14 per cent in August 2024, women still comprise less than one-sixth of all High Court judges.

 

The picture varies significantly across courts.

 

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has the highest number of women judges at 18, followed by the Bombay High Court with 12.

 

The Delhi and Madras High Courts have 10 women judges each, while the Karnataka and Calcutta High Courts have nine and eight women judges, respectively.

 

In contrast, the High Courts of Manipur, Tripura and Uttarakhand currently have no woman judge on their Benches, laying bare the uneven nature of gender representation across the judicial system.

 

The disparity is even more striking when compared with the district judiciary, where women have made substantially greater gains.

 

Women now account for nearly 38 per cent of judges in district and subordinate courts, reflecting a steadily strengthening pipeline of women entering the judicial service.

 

However, that progress has yet to translate into proportional representation in constitutional courts, where appointments are made through a different process and women continue to remain significantly underrepresented despite a growing number of elevations in recent years.

 

The milestone of four women judges heading High Courts comes in a week that also saw the Supreme Court welcome five new judges, taking its effective strength to 37 and leaving only one vacancy against the newly expanded sanctioned strength.

 

Among those sworn in was senior advocate (now Justice) V S Mohana, who became only the second woman judge currently serving on the Supreme Court Bench alongside Justice B V Nagarathna.

 

Justice Mohana is also only the second woman to be elevated directly from the Bar to the apex court, after Justice Indu Malhotra in 2018.

 

Yet the numbers tell the story of how gradual the change has been. Since its inception in 1950, the Supreme Court has had only 12 women judges.

 

The apex court has never had more than four women judges serving simultaneously. The closest the institution has come to a significant female presence was in 2021, when Justices Indira Banerjee, Hima Kohli, B V Nagarathna and Bela M Trivedi served together on the Bench.

 

India is also yet to have a woman Chief Justice of India, although Justice Nagarathna is expected to become the first woman to occupy the office in 2027 if the convention of seniority is followed.

 

The story of women in the higher judiciary stretches back nearly nine decades.

 

Justice Anna Chandy became India’s first woman judge in 1937 in the erstwhile Travancore State and later the country’s first woman High Court judge when she joined the Kerala High Court in 1959.

 

Justice M Fathima Beevi broke another barrier in 1989 by becoming the first woman judge of the Supreme Court, while Justice Leila Seth became the first woman Chief Justice of a High Court in 1991.

 

Progress has gathered pace in recent years. Government data show that 170 women have been appointed as High Court judges since 2014, including 96 in the last five years and six to the Supreme Court, with the numbers now increasing.

 

Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai

 

Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai’s elevation as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court marks the latest milestone in a career built on breaking barriers for women in Sikkim’s judiciary.

 

Born in Gangtok in 1964, she studied at Tathangchen School, Dowhill School in Kurseong and Tashi Namgyal Academy before graduating in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi. She obtained her law degree from the Campus Law Centre in 1989 and briefly practised in Delhi before joining the Sikkim Judicial Service in 1990.

 

Her appointment as a Judicial Magistrate First Class-cum-Civil Judge made her the first woman from Sikkim to hold the post. Over the next 25 years, she served in various judicial and administrative capacities, including Chief Judicial Magistrate, District and Sessions Judge and Registrar General of the Sikkim High Court.

 

Elevated as a judge of the Sikkim High Court in 2015, she became the state’s first woman High Court judge. She has also served several terms as Acting Chief Justice before being chosen to head the Patna High Court.

 

Justice Sunita Agarwal

 

Justice Sunita Agarwal, Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, is among the four women currently heading High Courts in a first for the Indian judiciary.

 

Born on April 30, 1966, she graduated in science from Lucknow University before obtaining her law degree from Awadh University. She enrolled as an advocate with the Uttar Pradesh Bar Association in 1990 and built a practice at the Allahabad High Court, primarily handling civil, writ, original and commercial matters.

 

After more than two decades at the Bar, she was elevated as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court in November 2011 and became a permanent judge in August 2013. During her tenure, she presided over a wide range of matters, including constitutional, civil and criminal cases, and served on several key administrative committees of the court.

 

A trained mediator, she was part of the first batch of Allahabad High Court judges trained in mediation and conciliation. She was appointed Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court in July 2023 and is due to retire in April 2028.

 

Justice Revati Mohite Dere

 

Justice Revati Mohite Dere built a reputation at the Bombay High Court as a judge who combined a measured courtroom manner with an unwavering commitment to individual rights and institutional accountability.

 

Elevated to the Bench in 2013 after a distinguished career at the Bar, the Pune-born judge, a graduate of Symbiosis Law College and an LLM from the University of Cambridge, became known for decisions that often placed constitutional values at the centre of judicial scrutiny.

 

Over more than a decade on the Bench, she delivered a series of notable rulings on personal liberty, police accountability and access to justice. Her orders ranged from directing action against custodial excesses and unlawful detentions to safeguarding press freedom and ensuring relief for vulnerable litigants.

 

In recent years, she drew attention for taking suo motu cognisance of the Badlapur school sexual assault case, ordering compensation in pothole-related deaths and injuries, and questioning investigative lapses by state agencies.

 

Often described by colleagues as possessing a “soft voice and iron resolve”, Justice Mohite Dere left the Bombay High Court in January 2026 to become the first woman Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court, capping a judicial career marked by a consistent emphasis on rights, fairness and accountability.

 

Justice Lisa Gill

 

Justice Lisa Gill has etched her name in judicial history as the first woman Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, a milestone that comes after more than three decades in the legal profession.

 

Born on November 17, 1966, in Chandigarh, she studied law at Panjab University, earning both her LLB and LLM before enrolling as an advocate in 1990.

 

She built a diverse practice at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, handling civil, criminal, constitutional, service and revenue matters, while also representing the Union Territory of Chandigarh and several public bodies.

 

Elevated to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2014, Justice Gill spent over a decade on the Bench before being transferred to Andhra Pradesh in March 2026 under the Supreme Court Collegium’s new policy of moving prospective Chief Justices to their future courts in advance.

 

The early move allowed her to familiarise herself with the court’s administration before taking charge as Chief Justice in April.

 

Her appointment is significant not only because she is the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s first woman Chief Justice, but also because she became the first judge to be transferred under the Collegium’s new succession policy.