Justice VK Tahilramani has taken over as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Governor, Banwarilal Purohit administered her the oath of office at a ceremony held in the Raj Bhavan, Chennai this morning.

Justice Tahilramani joined the Bar in 1982 and has served as a Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor for the State of Maharashtra. She was elevated to the Bench in the year 2001. She has also served as the Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

She will be taking over from Acting Chief Justice, Huluvadi G Ramesh, who had been tasked with manning the High Court in the interim after Chief Justice Indira Banerjee took up her new role as a judge of the Supreme Court.

Tahilraman J. is only the third woman to assume the charge of Madras High Court Chief Justice. With her appointment, the Madras High Court will continue to have the highest number of women judges across High Courts in the country.

The High Court first achieved this feat in December last year, with the appointment of Justices S Ramathilagam, R Tharani, T Krishnavalli and R Hemalatha. The number rose in June this year, with the addition of Justice PT Asha to its ranks.

With Chief Justice Tahilramani taking Chief Justice Banerjee’s position, the Court will continue to have 12 women judges sitting on the Bench.

The other women judges presently on the Bench are Justices S Vimala, Pushpa Sathyanarayana, VM Velumani, Nisha Banu, Anita Sumanth and V Bhavani Subbaroyan,

As far as representation of women in the judiciary is concerned, recent other appointments have also ushered in a series of firsts.

Justice Sindhu Sharma became the first woman judge to be appointed to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Later the same day, the notification of Chief Justice Gita Mittal’s transfer to the Court also meant that the Jammu and Kashmir High Court got its first woman Chief Justice.

Further, with the elevation of Indira Banerjee to the Supreme Court, the Apex Court now has a record high of three women judges sitting simultaneously on the Bench.