CJI CALLS FOR 50% REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN JUDICIARY
NEW DELHI: Days after the collegium headed by him paved the way for a woman judge to head the judiciary in 2027, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Saturday said that he would prefer at least 50 percent representation of women in judiciary at all levels.
Lamenting the inadequate number of women judges across the courts in the country, the CJI was of the view that the legal profession still has to welcome women into its fold since majority of women advocates struggle within the profession.
“Very few women find representation at the top. Even when they do, they still continue to face significant challenges. After 75 years of independence, one would expect at least 50% representation for women at all levels, but I must admit, with great difficulty we have now achieved a mere 11% representation of women on the bench of the Supreme Court,” justice Ramana said at a function organised by the Bar Council of India (BCI) to felicitate him.
Out of the sanctioned strength of 34 judges, the Supreme Court currently has four women judges – justices Indira Banerjee, Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna and Bela M Trivedi, which is the highest ever number in its history.
NEW DELHI: Days after the collegium headed by him paved the way for a woman judge to head the judiciary in 2027, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Saturday said that he would prefer at least 50% representation of women in judiciary at all levels. Lamenting the inadequate number of women judges across the courts in the country, the CJI was of the view that the legal
profession still has to welcome women into its fold since majority of women advocates struggle within the profession.
“Very few women find representation at the top. Even when they do, they still continue to face significant challenges. After 75 years of independence, one would expect at least 50% representation for women at all levels, but I must admit, with great difficulty we have now achieved a mere 11% representation of women on bench of the Supreme Court,” said Justice Ramana.
Speaking at a function organised by the Bar Council of India (BCI) to felicitate him, the CJI emphasised that issue pertaining to representation of women in the judiciary requires to be highjudges
lighted and deliberated upon.
Out of the sanctioned strength of 34 judges, the Supreme Court currently has four women judges – Justices Indira Banerjee, Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna and Bela M Trivedi, the highest number in its history. Other than Justice Banerjee, three judges were appointed on August 31, taking the tally of total number of women judges appointed in the top court till date to 11. Justice Nagarathna is in line to become the first woman CJI in September 2027 and she will have a tenure of little over a month.
Data from Union ministry of law and justice shows that out of 677 sitting judges in both Supreme Court and high courts, only 81 are women. This makes out the representation of woman in the total working strength to a mere 12%.
Among the 25 high courts, only the Madras high court has woman judges in double digits. Out of the working strength of 58 judges, the Madras HC has 13 women judges, which more than 22% representation. At least five high courts – Manipur, Meghalaya, Bihar, Tripura and Uttarakhand, do not have even a single woman judge while seven other high courts have just one woman judge each.
The sanctioned strength of judges across 25 high courts in India is 1,098. Of these, 465 posts (more than 42% of total strength) were vacant as of September 1.
In his speech, CJI Ramana highlighted how the collegium, which also includes Justices Uday Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, is attempting to address the issue of vacancies in the higher judiciary on an urgent basis. Justice Ramana said that it is only due to the collective efforts, the vacancy in the Supreme Court has been reduced to one judge while 82 names have been recommended for appointment in various high courts since the CJI took the helm in April this year.