For the third time in its history, the Supreme Court recently appointed an all-female bench. The first all-female bench was established by the Supreme Court in 2013, and the second one occurred in 2018.
Women Judges in Supreme Court
- Justice M. Fatima Beevi, who retired from the Kerala High Court as a judge, was appointed as the first female judge of the Supreme Court in 1989.
- Since its founding, India has only had 11 female Supreme Court judges, and there has never been a female Chief Justice of India.
There are now only three female judges on the top court
- Justices Trivedi, Kohli, and B V Nagarathna.
- In 2027, Justice Nagarathna will become the first female chief justice in the nation.
Status of Women in Indian Judiciary
Data of representation
High Courts
- Women make up 11.5% of the judges on High Courts.
- Only 17 of the 37 women suggested by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment as high court judges have been chosen so far; the remaining names are still being processed by the federal government.
- Collegium has thus far recommended 192 candidates for the high courts.
- Of these, 37 (or 19% of them) were women.
Subordinate Courts
- About 30 percent are women judicial officers in the subordinate courts.
Advocates
- Of the 1.7 million advocates, only 15% are women.
Bar Council
- There is not a single woman on the Bar Council of India; only 2% of elected representatives in the State Bar Councils are female.
Importance of Women’s participation in Judiciary
Need for diversification
- Institutional changes brought about by diversity are good, and the judiciary needs to be more diverse.
Balanced justice delivery system
- The justice delivery system will be significantly improved by the presence of women judges and attorneys.
A methodical and sympathetic attitude
- Increasing the number of women in the judiciary could contribute significantly to a more impartial and sympathetic response to matters involving sexual assault.
- Gender sensitization has been a topic of discussion frequently, particularly in cases when male judges failed to demonstrate compassion for the female victims.
Legitimacy
- If the judiciary is seen as a bastion of privilege, elitism, and exclusivity, people won’t trust it.
- Because of this, having women in the judiciary is crucial to its legitimacy.
Suggestions
More in corporate than in decision making
- Women are outnumbering men in law school classrooms and are increasingly joining the corporate sector, but their underrepresentation in such decision-making institutions is deplorable.
Way Forward
- Maintaining and promoting gender diversity in the higher judicial branch with a set proportion of female judges will help India’s judicial system become gender-neutral.
- By raising awareness and emphasising inclusivity, it is necessary to bring about institutional, social, and behavioural change among India’s population.
- As the guardian of equality and a profession dedicated to upholding rights, the legal profession ought to serve as a model for gender equality.
- Modifying a court’s long-established demographics may encourage the institution to view itself differently and pave the way for future modernization and reform.