Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday referred to the significant increase in the number of women judicial officers and stated that it was a countrywide trend.
At the outset of the proceedings, the CJI stated, “We wish to share some happy news. Here in the back row (in the courtroom), we have 75 judges from the civil judge junior division from Maharashtra. Out of a batch of 75 judges, 42 are women and 33 men.”
The CJI, sitting on a bench with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, stated, “This is a trend happening across the country. There are more women judges in numbers.”
Justice Chandrachud stated that he would meet the judicial officers, including the women judges, during the lunch hour.
Some lawyers, including senior advocate Dushyant Dave, asked the CJI to take steps to raise the number of women judges in the apex court.
The CJI Stated, “The appointments made today are a reflection of the bar 15 years ago.”
Former Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior lawyer Vikas Singh wrote a letter to the CJI, underscoring the need for allocation of one-third of the judges’ positions to women in higher judiciary.
He referred to the passage of a Bill in Parliament, reserving one-third seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
The high courts of Patna, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur don’t have a single woman judge and there are 103 women judges in the 20 remaining high courts as against 670 male judges, Singh, a 3-time president of the SCBA, wrote in his letter to the CJI.