Delhi high court to get its first woman chief justice :-

NEW DELHI: While it has led on many fronts, the Delhi high court has lagged behind in having a woman at the helm. This, however, is going to change by next week when it gets its first woman chief justice.

President Pranab Mukherjee recently cleared the decks for appointment of Justice G Rohini,     most senior judge of the Andhra Pradesh high court, to head the high court in the capital. She will be the 10th woman judge in the Delhi high court, which has nine women judges out of a strength of 40.

The Delhi high court had sent from its ranks the first woman to become the chief justice of a high court—Justice Leila Seth who headed the Himachal Pradesh high court. But a woman chief justice had eluded it till now. Aged 58, Justice Rohini is expected to stay for a period of four years.

Welcoming her appointment, Delhi High Court Bar Association has said the move will encourage women to take up law as a career and also give a boost to women lawyers.

Speaking to TOI, High Court Bar Association's president Rajiv Khosla said the bar is very happy to get a woman chief justice.

"We feel elated. The bar will bring to her notice some of the long-pending problems that we hope she can resolve. For instance, appointment of arbitrators, court commissioner, receivers is an important issue for us. The bar stands for equal opportunity to practice and demands transparency in the judicial system. We are sure her presence in HC will help us," Khosla said.

Born on 14th April 1955 at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Justice Rohini is a science graduate from Osmania University. Later, she obtained her law degree with first class from College of Law, Andhra University.

During her more than a two-decade long career as a lawyer that began in 1980, she was associated with several public issues as also labour and service matters.

Her experience as a lawyer includes practicing not just in the AP high court but also in administrative tribunals and civil courts. She had a stint with legal journalism when she was a reporter of Andhra Pradesh law journals. In 1985, she became the executive editor of the journals.

Justice Rohini has also been a government pleader in the Andhra Pradesh high court. She was elevated from this post to the bench and was appointed an additional judge on June 25, 2001. On July 31, 2002, she was made a permanent judge.   

AKANKSHA SHANU

PGDM 1year

2013-15.