The Ministry of Law and Justice (Department of Justice) on May 11 sent out an order, appointing four judges to the Delhi High Court. Interestingly, there are two women among the appointees. President Pranab Mukherjee has signed the orders.
The women judges are Rekha Palli and Prathiba M. Singh. The other judges appointed are Navin Chawla and C Hari Shankar.
Apart from Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal, the other women judges already at the high court are: Justices Hima Kohli, Indermeet Kaur, Mukta Gupta, Pratibha Rani, Deepa Sharma, Sangita Dhingra Sehgal and Anu Malhotra.
The ministry and the President had gone by the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation for elevating the four lawyers to the bench.
The following are the backgrounds of the new lady judges:
Pratibha Singh: She graduated from the University Law College, Bangalore, before doing her masters in law from Cambridge University. She became a leading lawyer dealing with IP and handled high profile cases, including the Novartis case. She has been named the Best Woman IP Litigator in Asia and became Senior Advocate in 2013.
Rekha Palli: Became a member of the bar in 1986 and was promoted Senior Advocate in 2015.
—India Legal Bureau