Delhi High Court attains total strength of forty, 20% of judges are women

With the appointment of four judicial officers, the Delhi High Court has attained a total strength of 40 judges. The newly appointed Justices Talwant Singh, Rajnish Bhatnagar, Asha Menon and Brijesh Sethi were administered the oath today..However, the total number of 40 judges is still short of the sanctioned strength of 45 permanent judges and 15 additional judges for the Delhi High Court..As the youngest member of the Bench, Justice Brijesh Sethi will be part of the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Rajendra Menon. Justices Talwant Singh, Rajnish Bhatnagar, Asha Menon will sit beside Justices Hima Kohli, Vipin Sanghi and S Muralidhar, respectively..Although Chief Justice Menon is set to retire on June 6, the strength of 40 will remain intact, as the appointment of Justice DN Patel as the next Chief Justice has already been notified by the Central Government..Apart from Justice Menon, the High Court will also bid adieu to four more judges, namely, Justices AK Pathak, Vinod Goel, Sunil Gaur and RK Gauba, over the course of this year..The High Court in October last year had welcomed four advocates to the Bench with the appointment of Justices Jyoti Singh, Prateek Jalan, Anup Jairam Bhambhani and Sanjeev Narula. Justice Manoj Ohri‘s name was also cleared a month later. Before their appointment, the High Court was functioning with a strength of 34 Judges..With eight women as part of the Bench, 20% of the Delhi High Court’s working strength now comprises women judges. The overall percentage of women High Court judges across India, as of January 2019, was 10.89%..The Supreme Court of India has three women judges – Justices R Banumathi, Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee – out of its current total strength of 31, which is approximately 9% of the total strength..Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.