Justice Sunita Agarwal will be the only woman Chief Justice of a High Court if collegium recommendation would be considered

Late Wednesday night, the Supreme Court Collegium uploaded a slew of resolutions, in which the recommendations for new Chief Justices for seven different High Courts were made.

One of these recommendations was to elevate the present Allahabad High Court Justice Sunita Agarwal as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.

If the Central government gives a green signal to this recommendation, Justice Agarwal will currently be the only woman Chief Justice of a High Court. While disclosing the reasons behind the recommendation of Justice Agarwal’s name, the resolution said, “On the appointment of Ms Sunita Agarwal, the Allahabad High Court would have a second Chief Justice among the Chief Justices of the High Courts. Besides, while considering the name of Ms Justice Sunita Agarwal, the Collegium has taken into consideration the fact that she would be the only woman Chief Justice of a High Court as presently there is no woman among the Chief Justices of the High Courts.”

If it comes to Gujarat, the last Chief Justice of the State was also a woman, Justice Sonia Gokani who had retired in February this year. She had a short tenure on this post. After her retirement, Justice Ashish Desai took over as Acting Chief Justice of the state. Now, he has been recommended for elevation as Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court.

Justice Agarwal completed her graduation from Awadh University in the year 1989 and enrolled as an advocate on December 16, 1990. On November 21, 2011, she was elevated to an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court. She took oath as a permanent judge on August 6, 2013.

Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/if-collegium-recommendation-goes-through-justice-sunita-agarwal-will-be-the-only-woman-chief-justice-of-a-high-court