CHENNAI: Senior advocate Venkita Mohana, who has been appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court, has become only the second woman in India to be directly elevated to the apex court from the Bar, after Justice Indu Malhotra in 2018.
With her appointment, the Supreme Court will have two serving women judges — Justice Venkita Mohana and Justice BV Nagarathna, who is in line to become India's first woman Chief Justice in 2027. Take a look at Mohana's journey from Coimbatore to the country's highest court.
Venkita Mohana was born on June 27, 1966, in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. She graduated from Coimbatore Law College (now Government Law College, Coimbatore) in 1988 and was part of India's first batch of the five-year integrated law course between 1983 and 1988.
After graduation, she joined the chambers of advocate M Panchapakesan in Coimbatore, where she was noted as the only woman lawyer in the office.
In 1992, Mohana moved to New Delhi and worked under advocate Indu Malhotra. A year later, she joined the chambers of senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan.
In 1996, she cleared the Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record examination and began practising independently in the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and various other courts in New Delhi.
Mohana was designated as a senior advocate by the Supreme Court in 2015. She was a classmate of sitting Supreme Court judge Justice KV Viswanathan and also worked alongside him in the office of former Attorney General KK Venugopal.
She represented the Union government in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) case in 2015, in which the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional amendment that sought to replace the collegium system of judicial appointments.
Over the years, she has appeared in several significant cases before the apex court, including matters relating to permanent commission for women officers in the armed forces, senior citizens' property rights and the Karnataka hijab ban case.
Mohana also challenged the Supreme Court's chamber allotment rules for lawyers, arguing that the cut-off date linked to appearance requirements unfairly disadvantaged newly designated senior advocates. She secured relief after the court modified the cut-off date from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2018.
Under the collegium system, recommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium are forwarded to the Union government for processing, following which appointments are made by the President of India after the completion of consultations and necessary clearances.
The Supreme Court currently has only one woman judge, Justice BV Nagarathna, who is expected to become India's first woman Chief Justice. With Mohana's elevation, the number of women judges in the apex court rises to two.
If she completes her full tenure, Justice Venkita Mohana will serve on the Supreme Court bench until June 2031.