Justice BV Nagarathna is slated to be the first woman chief justice of the Supreme Court of India in 2027. “When I was moving a matter on March 8 when I was an advocate, a judge said, please allow the lady to move the matter first because today is Women’s Day. My retort was that every day should be women’s day. What women are asking is not some kind of a pedestal in society. What we are asking is equal treatment, and not to be demeaned, whether it is in the workplace, at home, or on public streets,” Justice Nagarathna said while speaking at an event organised by the Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee of the Supreme Court early this year. Known as a stickler for the law, Justice Nagarathna has been in the spotlight ever since she was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2021. She was the only judge to give a dissenting view in the five-bench judgement on demonetisation. In another judgement, she asked the Centre to set up a statutory mechanism to regulate electronic media by stating that sensationalism in the name of breaking news and flash news must be curbed. — Joe.C.Mathew