CJI supports 50% reservation for women in judiciary
Our Correspondent
New Delhi: Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Sunday exhorted women lawyers to strongly raise their demand for 50 per cent reservation in the judiciary while assuring them of his "total support".
"I don't want you to cry but with anger, you have to shout and demand that we need 50 per cent reservation," he said. The CJI said that it's an issue of thousands of years of suppression and women are entitled to the reservation and added, "It's a matter of right, and not a matter a charity."
He said, "I want to say that I strongly recommend and support the demand of a certain percentage of reservation in all law schools of the country for women, so that they can join the judiciary."
Speaking at a felicitation function organised by Lady Advocates of Supreme Court for the nine newly appointed judges, including three women judges, CJI Ramana said he has modified Karl Marx's "Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chain" quote for the occasion and added: "Women of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chain."
He said he will be "very happy" whenever the goal will be realised.
"After coming back yesterday night from Odisha, I collected some information about the system in which we are working. In the entire country...in subordinate judiciary less than 30 per cent are women, in high courts women judges are 11.5 per cent and in Supreme Court four women judges out of 33...(that is) 11 or 12 per cent, the CJI said. He said that out of 1.7 million advocates in the country only 15 per cent are women and only two per cent elected representatives in the state bar councils are women.
CJI Ramana further said that people will often say easily that it is difficult to have 50 per cent reservation because women have a lot of problems but that's not correct.
I do agree that there is an uncomfortable environment, lack of infrastructure, crowded courtrooms, lack of washrooms, lack of creches and lack of sitting places, which are some of the major issues which are unfriendly to the women lawyers in the system, he said.
He said that after gathering information about the prevailing conditions throughout the country he is proposing for Judicial Infrastructure Corporation, which is the need of the hour.
In 6,000 courts across the country, 22 per cent of them do not have separate toilets (for women) and even lady officers also have to suffer from this, the CJI said, adding, So these are the ground realities which we have to tackle immediately and that is the reason why I am proposing certain issues to the executive to take and correct this."
