Indira Banerjee (born 24 September 1957) is a retired

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

who served as a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

and the eighth female judge in history of the Indian Supreme Court. Previously, she served as chief justice of the

Madras High Court The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Courts of India, High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is one of ...

, the second woman to hold the position.

Early life

Indira Banerjee was born on 24 September 1957. She started her education at the

Loreto House Loreto House, Kolkata was established in 1842 in Kolkata, by the Loreto sisters belonging to the institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the oldest and the first Loreto institution to be established in India and was one of the few all-gir ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. She pursued higher education at the

Presidency University, Kolkata Presidency University, formerly Presidency College, is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. Established in 1817 as the ''Hindoo College'', it was later renamed ''Presidency College'' in 1855 and functioned as a leadi ...

and the

Department of Law, University of Calcutta The Department of Law, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, formerly University College of Law, is a faculty in the University of Calcutta, founded in 1909, colloquially referred to as Hazra Law College, which offers undergraduate, po ...

. She was enrolled as an advocate on 5 July 1985 and practised before the

Calcutta High Court The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located at Esplanade Row West, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. T ...

Judicial career

Banerjee was appointed a permanent judge of the

on 5 February 2002 and transferred to the

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi ( Hindustani: दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालय; ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') is the high court in Delhi, India. It was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966. ...

with effect from 8 August 2016. She was elevated as the chief justice of the

and assumed charge on 5 April 2017. Banerjee succeeded Justice

Sanjay Kishan Kaul Sanjay Kishan Kaul (born 26 December 1958) is a former judge and lawyer who served as a judge of the Supreme Court of India since 2017 until upon his retirement in 2023. He has served as the first puisne judge, senior-most after the Dhananjaya ...

as the chief justice of the

, after she was elevated to the

. She is the second woman to head the

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

ed High Court, after Justice Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar who headed the court between June and November 1992. She was elevated as a judge of Supreme Court of India on 7 August 2018. She was retired on 23 September 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Indira 1957 births Living people 20th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian women lawyers 21st-century Indian judges 21st-century Indian women judges Chief justices of the Madras High Court Judges of the Calcutta High Court Judges of the Delhi High Court Justices of the Supreme Court of India Lawyers from Kolkata University of Calcutta alumni