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Who is Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who may become India's first female CJI?

Once elevated, Justice Nagarathna will become the second CJI from her family

nagarathna Justice B.V. Nagarathna | Image courtesy: Karnataka High Court website

Justice B.V. Nagarathna (58), a Karnataka High Court judge, is likely to be elevated to the top court of India as her name figures on the list of nine judges recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium. The elevation would also mean that Justice Nagarathna will become the first woman Chief Justice of India when she assumes office in 2027.

If the Centre approves the list of recommendations made by the five-member collegium led by Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana, Justice Nagarathna will be one of the three women judges to be elevated, besides Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Bela Trivedi are the other two women judges on the list. Other judges recommended by the collegium include justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Vikram Nath, J.K. Maheshwari, C.T. Ravikumar, M.M. Sundresh, and senior advocate and former additional solicitor general P.S. Narasimha.

Interestingly, if elevated, Justice Nagarathna would be the second CJI in her family. Her father, E.S. Venkataramaiah, was the 19th CJI who held the post for almost six months in 1989.

Born on October 30, 1962, Justice Nagarathna enrolled with the Karnataka Bar Council in Bengaluru on October 28, 1987, and practised constitutional law, commercial law—including insurance law, service law, administrative and public law, law pertaining to land and rent, family law, conveyancing and drafting of contracts and agreements, arbitration, and conciliation. She was appointed additional judge of Karnataka High Court on February 18, 2008, and made a permanent judge two years later.

In her 13-year-long stint as the judge, Justice Nagarathna has minced no words in reprimanding the media and also lawyers for crossing the line.  

In November 2009, lawyers, protesting against the then Chief Justice of Karnataka P. D. Dinakaran, alleging corruption, tried to disrupt the court proceedings and detained justices V. Gopala Gowda and Nagarathna, who were then senior judges, in a courtroom. "We are not angry,  but sad that the Bar has done this to us. We have to hang our heads in shame. Are we to rise at the behest of the Bar and is the Bar dictating the terms?" she had hit back following the incident.  

She has also been vocal about the freedom of the press, particularly the electronic media, when it comes to "breaking" news. “While truthful dissemination of information is an essential requirement of any broadcasting channel, sensationalism in the form of ‘breaking news', ‘flash news' or in any other form must be curbed," Justice Nagarathna had observed in a judgement.

“While there can be no two opinions that there has to be freedom guaranteed to the print and electronic media in the context of Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution, yet, one cannot lose sight of Article 19 (2) [which imposes reasonable restriction on 19 (1) (a)], to achieve a balance,” she had further observed. 

The divisional bench had stated that broadcasting should not lead to an "adverse impact" on the integrity of India and the security of the state, public order, decency or morality, in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence, even though Parliament did not choose to include a clause enabling the imposition of reasonable restriction in public interest.

Calling for self-regulation of the media, Justice Nagarathna had said, "No doubt, self-regulation is the most ideal form of regulation. But having regard (sic) to the upsurge in innumerable broadcasting channels, some of which are in their nascent stage, self-regulation without the intervention of any legal framework, in my view, is inefficacious.”

Justice Nagarathna is set to retire from her current post in 2024 (the retirement age for high court judges is 62 years). However, her elevation to the apex court, where the retirement age for judges is 65 years, will bring her closer to becoming India's first woman CJI,  though she is likely to have only a month-long tenure in the top post.

Justice Nagarathna's elevation to the top post would be a historic moment for the Indian judiciary, which has had only about eight women judges in the apex court.  

Supreme Court advocate Brijesh Kalappa said, "The country has never had a woman CJI. Justice Nagarathna's elevation to the top post in 2027, will go a long way in projecting the Supreme Court in a different light, as it certainly brings a different perspective,  a sense of intuition,  purpose and empathy."

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