Justice BV Nagarathna could become India’s first woman Chief Justice

The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, has cleared nine names for appointment as judges in the court.

Justice BV Nagarathna, currently a judge in the Karnataka High court, is in line to become the first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027, if the government clears her for appointment.

Justice Nagarathna is among the three women judges whose names were cleared by the SC collegium on Tuesday.

The collegium is believed to have ended the nearly-two-year-long logjam by recommending the names of nine judges to the Centre.

She started as a lawyer in Bengaluru and was appointed as an additional judge in the HC in February 2008. Two years later, she was made a permanent judge.

In 2012, justice Nagarathna delivered a judgment emphasising on the need to regulate electronic media. “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,” she wrote in her judgment.

While urging the Union government to consider setting up an autonomous and statutory mechanism to regulate broadcast media, justice Nagarathna clarified that the concept of regulation should not be understood to mean control by the government or the powers that be.