From Fighting For Women Rights In Army to Top Court Bench, Who Is V Mohana?

A lawyer who argued one of the most significant cases for gender equality in the armed forces is now set to join the country's highest court.

Senior Advocate V Mohana, who appeared in the landmark case that secured permanent commission for women officers in the Indian Army, has been appointed a judge of the Supreme Court. The Centre on Monday notified the appointment of five new judges to the Top Court - Justices Sheel Nagu, Shree Chandrashekhar, Sanjeev Sachdeva and Arun Palli, along with Ms Mohana. The five are expected to take oath on Tuesday.

With her appointment, Ms Mohana becomes only the second woman in the Supreme Court's history to be elevated directly from the Bar, after Justice Indu Malhotra. She will also be the 12th woman judge to serve on the Top Court in its 76-year history.

Born in Chennai, Ms Mohana is a first-generation lawyer who has practised in the Supreme Court for nearly four decades. Known for maintaining a low public profile, she has handled a wide range of matters spanning constitutional, civil and criminal law, while also serving as amicus curiae in several important cases.

Her most prominent appearance came in the litigation over permanent commission for women officers in the Army. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of women Short Service Commission officers, directing the Army to grant them permanent commission and opening the door to greater gender parity in the armed forces.

Ms Mohana also represented the Union government in the 2015 National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) case, in which the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional amendment that sought to replace the Collegium system of judicial appointments.

She has appeared in several significant cases before the Top Court, including litigation concerning permanent commission for women officers in the armed forces, senior citizens' property rights and the Karnataka hijab ban case

A graduate of Coimbatore Law College, she belonged to the institution's first batch of the five-year law course between 1983 and 1988. One of her classmates was Justice K.V. Viswanathan, who was also elevated directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court in 2023. 

After graduating, both moved to Delhi, working first under senior 
advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan and later with former Attorney General K.K. Venugopal.

Ms Mohana was designated a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court in April 2015. Over the years, her practice has covered constitutional, civil, criminal, service, banking, intellectual property, cybercrime and corporate law, though she is best known for her work in constitutional and civil matters.

In a lesser-known episode, she challenged the Supreme Court's own chamber-allotment rules for lawyers, arguing that a cut-off date linked to appearance requirements unfairly disadvantaged newly designated senior advocates.

If she serves a full term, Ms Mohana could remain on the Supreme Court bench until June 2031, when she reaches the retirement age of 65. That would give her one of the longest tenures among women judges of the Top Court.

The Supreme Court currently has only one woman judge, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who is in line to become India's first woman Chief Justice. With the new appointments, the court will function at a strength of 37 judges, including the Chief Justice of India, leaving one vacancy.