Justice R Banumathi to become part of SC collegium

The Supreme Court collegium, which comprises five senior-most judges, will now have Justice R Banumathi as a new member after Justice Ranjan Gogoi demitted office as the CJI.

Justice Banumathi will be the second-ever woman to be part of the collegium after Justice Ruma Pal in the last 13 years.

Justice Pal was the last woman judge who was a member of the collegium before demitting office in 2006.

The apex court collegium comprises the five senior-most judges as its members to select and recommend names for the appointment of judges in the Supreme Court.

The collegium which recommends names of persons for appointment of judges in the high courts comprises three senior most apex court judges as its members.

With the retirement of Justice Gogoi as CJI on November 17, Justice Banumathi becomes number five in the seniority of apex court judges and would automatically become part of the collegium entrusted with the task of selecting and recommending names of judges in the Supreme Court.

Besides newly sworn-in CJI S A Bobde, Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman and Banumathi would be part of the collegium.

Justice Banumathi, who was enrolled with the bar in 1981, had become a District and Sessions Judge in 1988 in Tamil Nadu.

She was elevated as a judge of the Madras High Court on April 03, 2003 and later became the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court on November 16, 2013.

Justice Banumathi became a Supreme Court Judge on August 13, 2014 and would demit office on July 19, 2020.