Government lacks intention to achieve gender equality in courts: Ex-CJI

NEW DELHI: In a shocking announcement on International Women’s Day, former CJI NV Ramana on Sunday said that the government lacks the intention or determination to achieve gender parity in the Constitutional Court despite having 40 per cent female representation among trial court judges.Speaking at the Q&A session of the Supreme Court’s first national conference on ‘Women in Law in India’, Justice Ramana said, “The government has always shown a casual attitude in appointing women (to Supreme Court and High Court judges). Justice Ramana faced numerous pulls and pressures during her tenure in the Judicial Council of India from April 2021 to August 2022.”Three women judges – Hima Kohli, Bela M Trivedi and Justice BV Nagarathna – took oath on August 31, 2021, while serving as the collegiate bench, creating history. Since then, no other woman judge has been appointed to the Supreme Court, although the baton has been passed to five chief justices – UU Lalit, DY Chandrachud, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and now Surya Kant. Justice Nagarathna will become the first woman CJI on September 24 next year. The former chief justice said in her presence that there were two future chief justices in the meeting (referring to Justice Nagarathna and her successor Justice PS Narasimha) and hoped that at least 7-8 women judges would be appointed as Supreme Court judges during their tenure. Justice Nagarathna, who will retire on October 29, 2027, assured Justice Ramana that she will try her best to get more women judges in the Supreme Court.Explaining the implication of the government’s lack of intention, Justice Ramana said that although successive law ministers have often asked the Chief Justice of the High Court to recommend the names of women lawyers and judicial officers for appointment as high court judges, “the government has never pressed for effective representation of women in every recommendation.”Justice Ramana said that the proportion of women among judicial officers is 40%. There are only 116 women judges out of 1,122 judges, and only one woman judge out of 34 judges.He said it was unfair to blame the government solely for the imbalance in female representation in the judiciary. “The judiciary must be sincere about inclusivity as there is no dearth of talented women lawyers who can serve as high court judges,” Justice Ramana said.“With the exception of a few magistrate courts, there is a large pool of highly qualified female lawyers in most major metropolitan centres. It is of great concern why these figures are not reflected in judicial appointments,” he said.