Court Data
14 percent of sitting judges in High Courts are women
Representation of women in High Courts has remained unchanged for past two years
In June 2026, the Supreme Court appointed Justice V. Mohana directly from the Bar. Her appointment increased the number of sitting women judges in the Supreme Court to two. Prior to that, Justice B.V. Nagarathna was the only woman judge in the Court for almost a year. Following an Ordinance that increased the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court from 34 to 38 judges, the demand to appoint a woman judge reached an all-time high.
Typically, the Supreme Court Collegium, tasked with recommending judges to the Supreme Court, looks to the High Courts for elevation. While the Collegium occasionally selects judges directly from the Bar, it has elevated only 11 judges from this pool since 1950. Improving gender diversity at the top court hinges heavily on diversifying the High Courts that feed into it.
As of 1 July 2026, women make up just 111 out of the 781 sitting judges across High Courts in India, a meagre 14 percent representation. This figure has remained unchanged since the Supreme Court Observer undertook similar research in August 2024.
Number of women judges in each High Court
Figure 1 plots the number of women judges across each High Court. The Punjab and Haryana High Court leads with 16 sitting women judges. Four High Courts—Bombay, Delhi, Karnataka, and Madras—have 10 women on the bench each, followed by Calcutta High Court with eight judges, and the Allahabad and Gujarat High Courts with seven judges each.
The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Courts each field six judges. The Gauhati and Rajasthan High Courts have four judges, while Kerala and Patna have three. The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has two women on the bench. Five High Courts have only one woman each, and another five High Courts have no women at all, bringing the total to 111 women across the nation’s High Courts.
Percentage of women compared to total sitting strength
Figure 2 breaks down the percentage of women among sitting judges, listing the High Courts from the highest representation to the least. The Punjab and Haryana High Court tops this list as well, with women making up 29 percent of its sitting strength, closely followed by the Meghalaya High Court at 25 percent. Overall, only seven High Courts across India have a sitting strength of more than 20 percent women.
The Bombay and Madras High Courts—despite having a higher number of women on the bench—rank low when measured against their total sitting strength. Therefore, while absolute numbers show higher representation, they pale when compared to the total sitting strength of the respective Courts. Seven High Courts have less than 10 percent representation, and five have no women at all.
While the demand to appoint women judges to the Supreme Court grows, the source pool maintains inadequate representation. The proportionate representation of women has remained stagnant in two years.