The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has broken the jinx of being a court where all judges are male. For the first time in 90 years, the J-K High Court has not only got its first woman judge but also the first woman chief justice. Justice Geeta Mittal will be the new Chief Justice of J-K High Court, and Justice Sindhu Sharma has been appointed as a judge.
While the posting of Justice Geeta Mittal, acting chief justice of the Delhi High Court, was already cleared, the appointment of local lawyer Sindhu Sharma as a judge was made on Friday.
Ever since its inception in 1928 by the then Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh, the J-K High Court never had a woman chief justice or a judge. It is for the first time in the history of the court with an approved strength of 17 judges that not one but two judges are women.
Sindhu Sharma’s father OP Sharma is a retired High Court judge and she has become the first women from J&K to become a judge. Before being appointed as a judge, she was an assistant solicitor general.
Several women from the state have made a name as practising lawyers but none of them had so far been appointed as a judge.
Prior to 1928, Hari Singh as the monarch used to himself handle the litigations. In March 1928, he established the High Court of judicature consisting of a chief justice and two judges.