In August 2021, for the first time, three women judges were elevated to the Supreme Court of India in one single swoop.

With the elevation of Justices Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna and Bela Trivedi, the top court, for the first time in its 70-year history, had four sitting women judges, including Justice Indira Banerjee, who was already serving as a judge at the time.

Back then, the Collegium's recommendation to elevate the women judges and the Centre's quick notification of their appointment was lauded and celebrated as a historic moment for gender representation in the top echelons of India's judiciary. This was a remarkable moment considering the fact that only 8 women had graced the Supreme Court until then.

But time has proven that it was too early to celebrate. While the individual women judges shattered the proverbial glass ceiling, the institutions - both judicial and executive - did not.

Since 2021, three Chief Justices of India (CJIs) - Justices UU Lalit, DY Chandrachud and Sanjiv Khanna have come and gone. For all the speak of the importance of gender representation, no woman was elevated to the apex court in their tenures.

The tenure of current CJI BR Gavai, who took over the reins in May this year, seems to be going the same way.

This became most evident in the August 25 recommendation by the Collegium to elevate Justices Alok Aradhe and Vipul Pancholi to the top court. The recommendation to elevate the latter raised eyebrows, as Justice Pancholi is only 57th in the list of seniority of High Court judges.

As of now, only one woman has a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of India - Justice BV Nagarathna - who is slated to become the first woman Chief Justice of India.

As a member of the Collegium, which currently also comprises CJI Gavai and Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, and JK Maheshwari, Justice Nagarathna dissented against Justice Pancholi's elevation. She reportedly opined that his appointment would not only be “counter-productive” to the administration of justice, but would also put the credibility of the collegium system at stake.

But despite the future CJI's dissent and criticism from the legal community, the Central government notified Justice Pancholi's elevation, along with Justice Aradhe's with uncharacteristic promptness on August 27.

Earlier this year, Bar & Bench took a look at the list of High Court judges in order of seniority to gauge who might be the next woman judge elevated to the Supreme Court.

Three women judges are higher up in seniority than Justice Pancholi.

Justice Sunita Agarwal, who is presently serving as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, is the senior-most woman judge in India. Had she been elevated to the Supreme Court, she would have had a considerably long tenure ending only in 2031. 

Justice Agarwal is followed by Justice Revati Mohite Dere of the Bombay High Court, who, had she been elevated, would have served until 2030. 

Justice Lisa Gill from the Punjab and Haryana High Court is also higher up in the seniority list than Justice Pancholi. Had she been elevated, she would have served on the bench of the top court till 2031.

We surmised then that the elevation of these three judges may be delayed as there is sufficient representation from their parent High Courts at the Supreme Court. However, the Gujarat High Court, which is Justice Pancholi's parent High Court, already has two other judges on the Supreme Court - Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice NV Anjaria.

As Senior Advocate Karuna Nundy pointed out in a post on X, the Supreme Court will now have three times as many judges from Gujarat as women judges.

It must be stressed that it is often unclear as to what the Collegium takes into account when it makes a recommendation. Whether it is seniority, parent High Court representation or any other factor, we are often in the dark.

And the shroud of mystery was particularly evident in this round, as the Collegium resolution recommending the elevation of Justices Aradhe and Pancholi contained not a single sentence explaining their reasoning. It is only through news sources that we came to know of Justice Nagarathna's dissenting opinion.

It took the sole woman judge on the top court's bench to point out the obvious dissonance in recommending Justice Pancholi. And unfortunately, much like the voices of Indian women who don't find representation in the apex court of the country, her opinion went unheeded.

Read more about the three women judges here.