Gender based-------- Judiciary

 Gender based-------- Judiciary

(By Aadesh Sharma ) 

Image By:- Kanishka Sharma

Our Indian judicial is still having sex discrimination. There are not so many women in Indian judicial. If seen girls are earning more names than boys. Yet in the field of education, the number of girls in Indian judicial is very less.

There are "too few women" in higher levels of Indian judiciary and only three women judges in the apex court here are just "token representation", says Justice Sabrina McKenna of Hawaii Supreme Court.

 

She said she is inspired by some of the judges of the Supreme Court of India for whom she has tremendous respect, but her "only concern is the lack of diversity, especially in terms of women" and "apparent bias against women in India's judiciary in terms of leadership".

 

Without commenting on the merits or demerits of the collegiums system of appointment of judges for higher judiciary prevalent in India, she said it should be transparent and there is a need to understand and study "why more eminently qualified women are not being appointed to high courts and the Supreme Court".

She said it is not just women's issues, but also having different perspectives in a court.

 

On the collegium issue, she suggested a transparent system, saying, "When judges select judges, you tend to select people who are like yourself. People are people. They are more comfortable with people like them."

 

She said that the change has to start from law schools and women students need to be encouraged not only by other women but also by men in positions of power.

Indian Judiciary Is 90% Male & Mostly Upper Caste

The Ministry of Law and Justice recently released information about gender diversity in the Supreme Court and the High Courts. The data highlights the gender disparity in the Indian judiciary and makes the case for a more representative Indian judiciary.

Only 10.4% of Women Judges

Of the 676 judges serving in the Indian judiciary, only 70 are women. The Supreme Court has an only one-woman judge and eight High Courts comprise all-male judiciaries. With 12 women on the bench, Bombay High Court has the highest number of women judges in the country.

Only eight High Courts have a greater percentage of female judges compared to the national average. Sikkim has one female judge out of the working strength of two. Delhi High Court has 28.2 percent or 11 female judges. Only Bombay & Delhi High Courts have female judges in double-digit. Four high courts have just one female judge.

Why Diversity in the Judiciary Matters?

The role of the judiciary is to make decisions by the letter of the law. While the law formulates general regulations, legislations allow enough discretion to the judiciary to exercise their independent reasoning and provide justice to the unique factual circumstances in individual cases. It is in exercising this discretion that judges draw from their worldview and personal experiences.

A monolithic, homogeneous worldview of the judiciary would not adequately be able to do justice to our pluralistic society where each citizen occupies a different political position in the hierarchies of gender, caste, religion, region, class, culture, ability and sexuality.

• 8 Number of woman judges in SC in the past 70 years

• 1 Dalit Chief Justice of India

• 11% woman judges in high courts (currently)

• 0 Dalit chief justice in high courts (currently)

What is the current status?

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) in its 2011 report recommended the constitution of a National Judicial Commission for making an appointment to the Superior Courts and that the Judicial Commission must follow a minimum reservation for various groups. The Government in its reply to a question in the Lok Sabha stated that it has requested the Chief Justices of the High Courts to consider suitable candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities, and women while sending proposals for the appointment of Judges. Despite these recommendations, there is no considerable progress.

  

  

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The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.