Hon’ble Chief Justice of India NV Ramna, the other day, while inaugurating a meet of the women advocates and judges in the Supreme Court gave a very call that they must unite and scream for 50 percent reservation in the judiciary. Paraphrasing Karl Marx, he said that ‘women of the world unite as they have nothing to lose but their chains. It is nothing but romanticizing of the women’s struggle. It cannot be said to be a reasonable and judicious call by any yardstick. Women cannot be compared with workers of any industrial house, who can be exhorted for class struggle. Women come from a different socio-economic milieu like their men counterparts, they cannot be expected to come on the roads and fight for 50 percent reservation.
The Hon’ble Chief Justice furnished some startling data like out of 17 lakh lawyers across the country, only 15 percent are women. The number of judges in the subordinate judiciary is about 30 percent, in the High Courts and the Supreme Court, it is slightly more than 11 percent.
Now the question that arises here is that if there are only 15 percent women in lawyering, how can it be made 50 percent in the appointment of judges across the board? Can the country afford to have second-rate judges and spoil the standard of justice in its zeal to achieve the objective of 50 percent judges? The reply is an emphatic NO.
As a matter of fact, we have to create an atmosphere, which should attract a large number of women towards the legal profession, nay to all professions. The standard of education has to be elevated; facilities need to be upgraded. The conducive environment and proper facilities are to be developed to attract more women to the judiciary or for that matter any other profession. There is no doubt that quite a substantial number of women are doing extremely well in the profession. Many of them do not want to go to the judicial services because of multiple obstacles and compulsions. Some of them are related to their families and they need to be addressed with the active cooperation of the Bar, Judiciary, Government, and above all the society.
So long, it is not done, it will be like a wild goose chase. Neither the quality of justice will be improved nor the desired goal of increasing the number of judges will be achieved.