CONTEXT

Chief Justice of India

• Pushed for greater women share in judiciary
• Backed 50% representation for women in judiciary.

He pointed

• Women constituted only about 30% of the subordinate judiciary
• In High Courts, women judges constitute 11.5%
• Supreme Court currently has four women Justices out of the sitting 33. That makes it just 12%.
• Of the 1.7 million advocates, only 15% are women.
• Only 2% of the elected representatives in the State Bar Councils are women
• There is no woman member in the Bar Council of India
• One of the main reason for the continuing battle of women in spite of acquiring sufficient skills and knowledge is the lack of adequate representation at the helm of affairs
• Presence of women as judges and lawyers, will substantially improve the justice delivery system
• Presence of women on the Bench and in the Bar has more than a symbolic importance.
• They bring to the law a different perspective, one that is built upon their experience. They also have a more nuanced understanding of the differing impacts that certain laws may have on men and women

ISSUES

INFRASTRUCTURE

• Absence of restrooms, child care facilities
• Crowded as well as claimed small Court rooms
• It was found in a survey of 6000 trial court rooms, that about 22% of them do not have washroom facilities for women

SOCIETAL NORMS

• Prevalence of certain attitudes about the role of women in society regardless of the type of employment

FAMILY  

• Employed women quit the workforce mid-career due to domestic responsibilities that fall to women.
• According to a  report by International Labour Organisation in 2018, India had one of the world’s largest gender gaps in unpaid care work which resulted in female labour force participation rate of only 24%, better only than Pakistan in South Asia

BIAS RELATED TO WOMEN 

• The woman face bias, from their colleagues as well as litigants. This bias affects not just women advocates but also those on the bench.
• This creates completely unwelcome atmosphere and sides court rules for women, it becomes duty for all lawyers and judges to ensure a friendly environment

APPOINTMENTS IN JUDICIARY

• The direct recruitment from the bar which accounts for a quarter of district judge appointments is a grade b eligibility criteria that fail to take into consideration the differential familial  expectations from women
• To be eligible for a district judge, advocate must have minimum 7 years of continuous practice, this could be your disqualifying criteria for many women advocates because of intervening social responsibilities of marriage and motherhood preventing them from a continuous practice

IMPACT OF INCLUSION OF WOMEN 

• Substantially improve the justice delivery system
• Women can bring a different perspective to the law which would enrich the legal field
• Achieving equality for women judges should be our goal not only because it is right for women but also because it is right for the achievement of a more just rule of law
• Women judges help in strengthening the judiciary as well as help to game the trust of people
• Would be seen as a positive step of judiciary being perceived as more transparent, inclusive and representative of the people whose lives they affect.
• Women judges by their mere  presence have the capability to enhance the legitimacy of courts sending a powerful signal that they are open and accessible to those who seek recourse to justice
• The women judges bring those lived experiences to their judicial actions that tends towards a more comprehensive and sympathetic perspective encompassing not only the legal basis but also awareness of consequences of the judicial action
• Having more diverse judiciary and shows diversity of perspectives and install the high degree of public confidence

WAY FORWARD

• Focus should be to increase the number of girls choosing to study law after school. The chief justice of India also recommended some form of uniform policy reservation for girls for entry into law colleges across the country
• Chief justice advocated for the need to form a separate entity, the national judicial infrastructure corporation for introduction of inclusive designs for Court complexes to create a more welcoming environment for women
• Judiciary must realise that women take a longer path to success that is often interrupted by childbirth and childcare. That does not imply that they do not have the appetite for judicial responsibility, but that the institution needs to do what it takes to bring them on board.
• To be truly diverse, the Indian judiciary would need representation of judges from not only different gender identities, including trans and non-binary but also different caste, socioeconomic, religious, and regional backgrounds.
• The former Supreme Court judge of the United States said that women belong in all places where decisions are being made, it shouldn’t be that women are the exception.