Justice Indira Banerjee Demits Office As Judge Of Supreme Court

Elevated from the chair of the Chief Justice of the Madras Court to the apex court in 2018 as the 8th female judge in the history of the apex court, Justice Indira Banerjee’s legacy as a part of the bar and the bench is of close to 4 decades. Having passed her Bachelor’s in History from the erstwhile Presidency College (now University) and the Department of Law, the University of Calcutta, she enrolled as an advocate in the State of West Bengal in the year 1985. Law did not come naturally to her. She was a first generation practitioner and having qualified the two tiers of the Civil Services Exam, she was naturally inclined to join the same. It was only when long years of advice and discussions with the Late Politician- Lawyer, Somnath Chatterjee, her family friend, that Justice Banerjee returned to the bar and  practiced both on the Original and Appellate sides of the Calcutta High Court, at the tribunals and also before the Supreme Court, before she was elevated as a permanent judge of the Calcutta High Court in 2002. Later she was transferred to the Delhi High Court, from where she was elevated as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in 2017. In the following year, she was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India.

During her judgeship, she had held key administrative positions as well like the Executive Chairperson of the West Bengal State Legal Services Authority, the Chairperson of the Delhi State Legal Services authority among others. She was also selected for a weeklong training in Judicial Administration at the Civil Services College, Singapore in 2013 on the recommendation of the then Chief Justice of India. Along with Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice Indu Malhotra, she was a part of the committee that probed into the allegations against the former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Among her famous cases, the State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh (2020) case stands important where Justice Banerjee stressed on the importance of reservation, ignoring which shall be a gross violation of the Right to Life and Right to Equality. She presided over several important cases like M. Ramachandran v. Chairman 2018 SCC OnLine Mad 13663 on the validity of LL.B. degree in a case where the Higher Secondary examination was passed after 5 to 6 years after Class 10 examinations. She strongly discouraged frivolous writ petitions that took away judicial time like in the case of S.K. Muruganantham v. Union of India 2017 OnLine Mad 36079 where the petitioner filed Mandamus to stop the title of Mahatma before M.K. Gandhi in coins, notes and postal stamps. Her decision to recuse from hearing plea on alleged post poll violence  in West Bengal Assembly Elections in 2021 were questioned by several people across social media and public life.

Sanjoy Ghose, Senior Advocate recalls how Justice Banerjee was “compassionate, gentle and yet firm on the bench”. She was an ardent follower of Late Justice Ruth Badger who was a pioneer in Women’s rights and justice delivery system in the United States. In a farewell function organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association, Justice UU Lalit said , “ “Collegiums always pick the best of the lot. 20 years of judicial service, single-mindedness and dedication-means a lot and that’s Justice Banerjee for you”. Coming from the same Chambers as the Hon’ble Justice (Retd.) Ruma Pal, Justice Indira Banerjee leaves behind an unmatched legacy with her compassionate judgments. She has decided to spend the post- retirement phase with her family, travel and put time to its best use, given a Judge has to sacrifice a lot during their tenure, sometimes far removed from regular social interaction in the public. As she demits office, we wish more female judges to grace the corridors of the apex court in the near future.