Figure 3: No Copyright Infringement Intended

Context:

• Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana has backed 50% representation for women in the judiciary.

Concerns:

• The CJI said women constituted only about 30% of the subordinate judiciary.
• In High Courts, women judges constitute 11.5%, and in the Supreme Court, there are currently just four women Justices out of the sitting 33 (i.e, 12%).
• Of the 1.7 million advocates, only 15% are women.
• Only 2% of the elected representatives in the State Bar Councils are women. At present, there is no woman member in the Bar Council of India.

Reasons behind low no of women in Judiciary:

• Lower number of women enter into the subordinate judiciary which makes the whole pool distorted towards the men.
• Double Jeopardy: Women faces double jeopardy where they have to take care of their household responsibilities along with professional career. This puts them into disadvantage to male section.
• Patriarchal Society: Economic responsibility in the household is considered a male work and women are not encouraged in the house to take up professional careers.
• High Dropouts: Women have more dropout rate than male in the secondary education which affects their probability of undertaking a professional career.
• Break in career: Women face break in career due to responsibility of child rear which puts them into disadvantage.

Need for More Women in Judiciary:

• Inclusive Judiciary: It will make judiciary more inclusive and wider representative of the society. Women are more accessible thus will enhance the reach of judiciary.
• Increased Public trust: By their mere presence, women judges enhance the legitimacy of courts, sending a powerful signal that they are open and accessible to those who seek recourse to justice.
• Sensitivity towards marginalised section: It will bring ethics of care along with ethics of rationality thus ensuring wider social justice along with economic justice.
• Women judges bring their lived experiences to their judicial actions, experiences that tend toward a more comprehensive and empathetic perspective- one that encompasses not only the legal basis for judicial action, but also awareness of consequences on the people affected.
• Fairness to judgement: By elucidating how laws and rulings can be based on gender stereotypes, or how they might have a different impact on women and men, a gender perspective enhances the fairness of adjudication, which ultimately benefits both men and women. 
• Flip to Women empowerment: More women as judges would hail as role model to other females thus provide an overall lift to the women empowerment. 
• Constitutional Provision: Article 15, 15(3), 16, 39(a) seeks to achieve the gender justice in society. By giving great participation to women in judiciary, a move towards gender justice can be achieved.

Way Forward:

• Creation of ALL India Services: It will provide a single platform for competition leading to higher participation of women. In the long term, higher participation at lower judiciary will only ensure the more judges in higher judiciary.
• Subsidised Coaching: Women should be encouraged to take being judges as career option. State can run subsidised coaching as it does for UPSC to enhance women participation.
• Consideration of women: While in the collegium meeting, judiciary must keep the interest of women in mind while selecting the judges.
• More women lawyers: Judiciary must provide higher designation to more women lawyers. Currently, there are only 17 women senior counsel designates in the Supreme Court, as opposed to 403 men.
• Collection of Data: Supreme Court must direct collection of data to determine the number of women judges in the lower judiciary and tribunals and also to determine year-wise number of senior designates by all High Courts.