Women in Judiciary

By Rishika

India is the largest democracy in the world, and an integral part of this democracy is the judiciary. But time and again our country has been witnessing the under-representation of women in the Judiciary. Even with an almost equal number of enrollments of females in undergraduate programs for law as males, our country has witnessed a handful of female lawyers acquiring senior positions, meaning that a lot of female lawyers are never getting a chance to hold any significant position in the judiciary or practice law in higher judiciary. Indian states like Manipur, Meghalaya, Bihar, Tripura, and Uttarakhand do not have a single female judge.

Women also face an entrenched misconception in the judiciary that female lawyers are mostly to practice in family courts and cases related to finance and taxes are handled by male lawyers. This deception is another one of the reasons for such a grim scenario of women in the judicial system and hampers their path. Female lawyers have been struggling to be provided with basic facilities as well. According to a survey, around 22% of trial courts have no toilets for women.

Earlier this year, we saw the Chief Justice of India backing up for 50% representation of women in the Indian Judicial system. To quote him, "It is your right. It is not a matter of charity...Enough of this thousand years of suppression".

There have also been discussions that the presence of an equal proportion of women in court will help in better judgments. In addition to that, this is the first time that 4 female judges have been appointed to the supreme court. Practically, it's not much but could be a change for the better, this could be a beginning for much-needed gender sensitization in India which will also provide a diverse perspective to the judgments.

Lastly, our Judicial system needs ground-level changes to ensure a solid representation of women and it should be seen as the first step to gender parity in the judicial system rather than the final goal.