'Why Senior Women Judges Ignored?': Indira Jaising Questions Collegium Proposal To Elevate Justice Pancholi

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising has questioned the Supreme Court Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Vipul Pancholi, Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, to the Supreme Court, asking why three women judges, who are senior to him, were ignored.

Jaising highlighted the abysmal representation of women in the Supreme Court, which has only one woman judge, Justice BV Nagarathna. 

Taking to 'X', Jaising in her post, opined that amongst the senior judges in line who could be potentially considered for elevation, were three women judges. They are Justice Sunita Agarwal (Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court); Justice Revati Mohite Dere (Bombay High Court), and Justice Lisa Gill ( Punjab and Haryana High Court)

She added that the appointment of Justice Pancholi will disproportionately increase the ratio of representation of Judges from the Gujarat High Court, considering that Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice NV Anjaria were elevated from the same High Court. She highlighted that if Justice Pancholi is elevated, he along with Justice Pardiwala, will become CJIs if the seniority rule for appointing CJIs is followed. 

She said :

"At least 3 woman judges are Senior to Justice Vipul Pancholi. They are Justices Sunita Agarwal, Revati Mohite Dere & Lisa Gill. This makes three judges from Gujarat, two will be CJI." 

Notably, the present ratio of male to female judges in the Supreme Court is 31:1, with Justice BV Nagarathna as the only sitting lady judge after Justice Bela Trivedi retired on July 9, 2025. 

In another post, Jaising pointed out that after the appointments of Justices Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna and Bela Trivedi in 2021, not even one woman judge was appointed, though 28 judicial appointments were made to the Supreme Court under 4 CJIs. “What hypocrisy to talk about empowerment of women! Does wisdom lie only with men?” she asked.

Justice Pancholi's proposal has sparked another controversy with reports emerging that Justice BV Nagarathna opposed his appointment in the collegium meeting, saying that it was not in the best interests of the judiciary.

Following media report on Justice BV Nagarathna's dissent, the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) has also issued a statement, calling for the publication of Justice Nagarathna's dissent note as well as the reasons for Justice Pancholi's transfer from Gujarat HC to Patna HC in 2023, which was stated to be not for routine reasons.