Indu Malhotra helped frame Vishaka guidelines, Good Samaritan law

Indu Malhotra will be the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed to the top court. She will be the seventh woman to become a Supreme Court judge.

Lawyers who have worked with her said that Indu Malhotra has been a consistent performer in the Delhi High Court as well as in the Supreme Court.

Senior advocate Indu Malhotra, who is set to become the seventh woman judge of the Supreme Court and the first to be elevated directly from the Bar, has contributed to legal intervention in several fields including human rights, arbitration and commercial matters.

Lawyers who have worked with her said that Malhotra has been a consistent performer in the Delhi High Court as well as in the Supreme Court. Malhotra has practised in the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and at various tribunals for the last 35 years, mostly in the apex court. A senior advocate close to Malhotra said that she had framed guidelines for the Good Samaritan law for protection of those who help victims of road accidents. He said that she was a member of the Vishaka Committee on sexual harassment at workplaces, and of a committee constituted by the Supreme Court to deal with complaints of sexual harassment within the court.

Read | Who is Indu Malhotra?

Malhotra was born on March 14, 1956, to Om Prakash Malhotra and Satya Malhotra. Her father was a senior advocate in the Supreme Court and an author who brought out the treatise on the Law of Industrial Disputes.
After earning a law degree from the faculty of law, Delhi University, Malhotra started practising in 1983. She enrolled in the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983 and was designated senior advocate in 2007. In 1988, she stood first in the advocate-on record test and became part of the select group of lawyers who alone can file petitions in the apex court.

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Advocate Sangram Patnaik said she has served as standing counsel for the state of Haryana and represented statutory bodies like the Delhi Development Authority, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Securities Exchange Board of India and Indian Council for Agricultural Research.

Read | SC rejects plea to stall Indu Malhotra’s appointment, on KM Joseph says wait

The Supreme Court had appointed Malhotra as amicus curiae in a case on arrests for dowry harassment with the consent of a family welfare committee to be set up in every district.

Read | Indu Malhotra in as Supreme Court judge, Government is still silent on Justice KM Joseph

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Malhotra was the second woman lawyer to be appointed senior advocate by the Supreme Court in 2007 after Justice Leila Seth, who was designated as senior advocate in 1977. She will be the seventh woman to become a Supreme Court judge. So far, only six women have joined the Supreme Court — Justices M Fathima Beevi, Sujata Manohar, Ruma Pal, Ranjana Desai, Gyan Sudha Misra and R Banumathi. Malhotra will be the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed to the top court.

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