CJI flags 10:1 male-female lawyer enrolments in TN
MADURAI: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday flagged the “abysmal” women-to-men ratio in the legal profession and called for ensuring equal opportunities for women, asserting that there was no dearth of young, talented women lawyers.
He was speaking at an event held here to mark the stone-laying ceremony for the Additional Court Buildings on the District Court campus and the inauguration of the District and Sessions Court and that of the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Mayiladuthurai.
The event was attended by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, among others.
Justice Chandrachud said recruiting chambers were being “sceptical” about employing women, assuming that their “familial” responsibilities would come in the way of their profession. “Statistics inform us that for 50,000 male enrolments in Tamil Nadu, there are only 5,000 female (10:1 ratio) enrolments,” the CJI said.
“The legal profession is not an equal-opportunity provider for women, and the statistics are the same all over the country,” he said.
“Chambers are sceptical about recruiting young women advocates. The reason for that is not a lack of young talented women,” he said. “There is no lack of talented young women.”
He requested the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court to take steps in setting up creche facilities at the High Court and district courts, saying this would go a long away in improving working conditions for women.
Stressing on the need to enhance entry-level pay for junior lawyers, he said the pay in Madurai for young law graduates was just between Rs 5,000-12,000 per month. Such poor pay disproportionately impacted members of marginalised communities such as SCs, STs and women, he said.
CHENNAI: Asserting that the Union government would support the Indian judiciary to be independent, Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijju on Saturday said any differences between the government and judiciary should not be construed as confrontation as it would send wrong message to the world.
Speaking at a function in which Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud laid the foundation stone for the additional court building on the Madurai District Court campus in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin Tamil Nadu Law Minister S Regupathy, Supreme Court judges, Acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court T Raja and High Court judges in Madurai, Rijju denied media speculations of a clash between the government and the judiciary.
Stating that differences were inevitable in a democracy, he said, however, they must not be construed as confrontation as it sends a wrong message across the world.
“We have differences, but it doesn’t mean there is confrontation,” Rijju said and made it clear that there was no problem between different organs of the State. These are signs of robust democratic actions, which are not a crisis.”
Referring to media reports of differences between the government and the Supreme Court or the Legislature and Judiciary, the Union Minister said, “We must understand that we are in a democracy.”
“There are bound to be certain differences in terms of some outlook but you can’t have conflicting positions.
This doesn’t mean confrontation. We are the largest democracy in the world,” he asserted.
Averring that everybody could not think alike, Rijju said “We are not ruled by a dictatorial king, so the difference of opinion can’t be termed as a crisis in Indian democracy.”
“We can criticise each other but when it comes to national interest we must be one,” he added.
Union Minister Rijju had a word of praise for Tamil Nadu saying the judicial infrastructure in the state was comparatively better than in many States in India and that he would be happy to see all the courts in Tamil Nadu use Tamil language in its proceedings.
“In the High Court there is a challenge...Tamil is a classical language and we’re proud of it. We would like to see it being used. With the increase in technology, advancement of legal transcripts, maybe some day Tamil language can be used in Supreme Court also,” he added.