Government lacks intent to achieve gender parity in courts: Ex-CJI

NEW DELHI: In a startling disclosure on International Women's Day, former CJI NV Ramana on Sunday said the govt either lacked intent or determination towards achieving gender parity in constitutional courts, even though there was a healthy 40% representation by women among trial court judges.

Speaking at a question-answer session during the first national conference of 'Indian Women in Law' at SC, Justice Ramana - who faced numerous pulls and pressures during his tenure as CJI from April 2021 to Aug 2022 - said, "The govt always showed a causal attitude in appointments of women (as judges of SC and high courts)."

During his tenure as head of the collegium, three women judges - Justices Hima Kohli, Bela M Trivedi and BV Nagarathna - took oath on Aug 31, 2021, and created history. No other woman judge has been appointed to SC since then, despite the baton passing on to five CJIs - UU Lalit, DY Chandrachud, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and now Surya Kant. Justice Nagarathna will become the first woman CJI on Sept 24 next year. Speaking in her presence, the former CJI said there are two future CJIs in this gathering (referring to Justice Nagarathna and and her successor Justice PS Narasimha) and hoped that during their tenure at least 7-8 women judges will be appointed to SC. Justice Nagarathna, who will retire on Oct 29, 2027, assured Justice Ramana that she would try her best to get more women judges to the top court.



Explaining what he meant by lack of intent on the govt's part, Justice Ramana said though successive law ministers had routinely requested high court chief justices to recommend names of women advocates and judicial officers for appointment as HC judges, "the govt has never strongly insisted on effective representation of women in each and every recommendation."

Justice Ramana said there is a healthy 40% representation of women among judicial officers. There are only 116 women HC judges among a sanctioned strength of 1,122 and only one woman judge in SC, which has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges.

He said it would be unfair to lay the blame entirely at the govt's door for the skewed representation of women in the judiciary. "The judiciary must respond with sincerity towards inclusivity as there is no dearth of talented women lawyers who can be HC judges," Justice Ramana said.

"Except few HC's, most major metropolitan centres - there exists a large pool of highly competent women lawyers. It is very worrisome, as to why these numbers are not reflected in the judicial appointments," he said.
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