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‘Mindset must change’: CJI Chandrachud bats for more women in judiciary
- When women enter the legal profession, the perception that they will have to play a larger role in discharging familial responsibilities and child rearing, along with societal responsibilities, acts as a barrier, the CJI said.
Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud on November 4 said "mindset must change" to facilitate an increase in the strength of women serving in the country's judiciary.
The CJI, while speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi on November 4, reportedly said that the recruitment of women in the subordinate judiciary was higher in states where women's education had gained pace.
“In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, of course the southern states, you will find that in the next ten years, these women are occupying positions of responsibility as we have women officers here from the armed forces who are occupying important positions of responsibility so then you open up the space and you will find these people accepting and achieving better positions of responsibility,” HT further quoted him as saying.
The country's topmost judge, however, noted that when women enter the legal profession, they face hurdles while finding employment, the newspaper reported. The perception that women will have to play a larger role in discharging familial responsibilities and child rearing, along with societal responsibilities, acts as a barrier, he reportedly added. “Therefore mindsets have to change,” the CJI underlined.
The statement comes a month after the top judge said that half of the country's judges in the Supreme Court and high courts could be women in the next 10-20 years.
“As gender equality is taking firm roots in the district courts, I am sure a similar representation of women would be witnessed among constitutional courts in a decade or two,” he had said on October 7, according to a Times of India report, after it was found that out of 75 new judicial officers recruited in Maharashtra, 42 were women.
Notably, only 4 percent of judges in the 73-year history of the Indian Supreme Court have been women, as per a report released by the SC Observer in June. The apex court is yet to be headed by a woman chief justice.
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Business NewsNews‘Mindset must change’: CJI Chandrachud bats for more women in judiciary
First Published:4 Nov 2023, 02:56 PM IST
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