Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court reached a significant milestone in judicial gender representation on Friday as nine newly appointed additional judges were sworn into office, increasing the total strength of women judges on the bench to a historic 19. This marks the largest contingent of women judges serving concurrently in the high court’s history spanning more than a century, surpassing the previous record of 18.
Acting Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra administered the oath of office and secrecy to the nine judicial appointees during a formal ceremony held on the court premises. The new inductees include three women advocates—Monika Chhibbar Sharma, Pooja Chopra, and Divya Sharma—alongside former Haryana Advocate General Parveen Singh Chauhan, Harmeet Singh Deol, Rajesh Gaur, Suneesh Bindlish, Minderjeet Yadav, and Ravinder Malik.
The appointments were formally notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice on Thursday following recommendations submitted by the Supreme Court Collegium over three months ago. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by sitting and retired judges of the high court, administrative officials, legal practitioners, and family members of the newly inducted judges.
Prior to these appointments, the high court bench comprised 16 sitting women judges: Alka Sarin, Archana Puri, Lapita Banerji, Nidhi Gupta, Amarjot Bhatti, Manisha Batra, Harpreet Kaur Jeewan, Sukhvinder Kaur, Sudipti Sharma, Kirti Singh, Mandeep Pannu, Rupinderjit Chahal, Shalini Singh Nagpal, Aradhana Sawhney, and Ramesh Kumari. With the induction of the three new women judges, the total number of female jurists on the bench has risen to 19, reinforcing gender diversity within the superior judiciary.
