Women in Judiciary

Published on 16 Jan 2025

Women in Judiciary

The participation of women in the Indian judiciary has been low since its inception. India has never had a women Chief Justice of India and out of the present 34 Supreme Court judges, only 3 are women. Of the 788 judges in all High Courts, only 107 (13%) are women. Out of the 1.7 million registered lawyers, only 15% are women.

Need to have women’s participation in the judiciary

Challenges to women's participation in Judiciary

• Historical gender bias: Historically, the legal profession and the judiciary have been male-dominated. This gender stereotype has limited women’s entry and progress in the judicial domain.

• Example: It took nearly 45 years for India to have a woman appointed as Chief Justice of the High Court. It happened in 1991 when Leila Seth was appointed as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

• Social expectations: Traditional gender roles and expectations put pressure on women to focus on domestic responsibility and certain blue-collar jobs.

• Glass ceiling: This indicates the discrimination faced by women in judicial service and the difficulty faced by women in aspiring higher judicial positions.

• Example: Only 2 women have ever been inducted into the collegium group.

• Access to legal education: Limited access to quality legal education and professional training can disproportionately affect women’s participation in the legal field.

• Example: Only 24% of students in the National Law School of India University are female.

• Work-life balance: The demanding nature of the judicial roles can make it challenging for women to balance their professional and personal lives.

• Lack of representations: Lack of female role models discourages women from pursuing a career in law and judiciary.

• Example: As of June 2023, none of the High Courts in India has a female Chief Justice.

• Lack of reservation: Some states have reservations for women in the lower judiciary, but this is missing at the High Court and the Supreme Court.

• Example: States like Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Rajasthan have benefited from such reservation and they now have 40% to 50% women judicial officers.

• Judicial infrastructure: The absence of ladies' washrooms, childcare facilities etc. have acted as barriers against women in the judiciary.

• Example: Nearly 22% of courts in India do not offer washroom facilities for women.

Way forward

• Horizontal reservation: The Parliament has passed a historic legislation granting reservation for women in the legislature. A similar policy, on a temporary basis, needs to be implemented in the judicial sphere.

• Improve judicial infrastructure: Incorporating restrooms, child care centres and improving the level of hygiene to increase the participation of women.

• Reduce unnecessary transfers: Frequent transfers can separate women from their families which denies them an opportunity to continue their job. Such unnecessary transfers could be minimized.

• Awareness: Programmes at the school level to divert more females into the law domain and programmes at the institutional level to bring down the glass ceiling.

Increasing the participation of women is a prerequisite for serving inclusive justice and must be a prime agenda for the government and the judicial machinery in the coming years.

Tags:
Polity

Keywords:
Indian Judiciary Women in judiciary Gender bias

Syllabus:
General Studies Paper 2

Topics:
Functions of Judiciary