Women as Judge

 

In last few years, there is significant increase in the number of women across the world. In large number of countries around 50% students are women, and according to data of 2014 women in OECD countries are more than 54% of professional judges. However women are still not represented in senior judicial positions such as bench in the Supreme Court and other senior positions.

Women hold only 33.6% judges in high courts. This practice is reflected in the estimates of the presidential positions in which women live. On average, women hold 45.9% leadership in the lower courts, 28% in the appellate courts, and 18.6% in the high courts. As women often succeed in gaining access to the legal profession but gradually progress to higher positions, revisit corporate culture and working conditions, and introduce counseling programs as needed. Apart from government policies, leadership and independent monitoring of results are key to ensuring diverse justice.

Justice M Fathima Beevi (1989-92) Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court. This was 39 years since the supreme court was established. Born in Kerala, he had a brilliant chart of his career, starting as a lawyer who worked in Kerala for eight years before being appointed as a judge in the Kerala High Court in 1983. He retired from the Supreme Court in 1992, and continued to serve as governor of Tamil Nadu. While serving as governor, he was criticized for appointing J. J. Jayalalithaa, then facing a corruption charge, as Prime Minister. According to attorney general Dushyant Dave, Justice Beevi was as polite as he was moderate, always well prepared for the history of the case as he sat on the bench. He said the suffering of women in the high courts was due to bias in the bar and on the bench. "We are still a sovereign state, which is likely to change any time soon."

Justice Sujata V Manohar (1994-99) She may have been the second female judge in the Supreme Court but she was the first female judge and the first female judge in the Bombay High Court. Having worked as a lawyer for almost 20 years, he was known for taking cases of public interest and doing pro bono work. In his place in the high court, he was present on a three-judge bench that discussed sexual harassment at work and paved the way for the Vishaka Guidelines.

Justice R Banumathi (2014-20) For more than half of her tenure as Supreme Court judge, she is currently the only female judge sitting. She was part of a bench that handed down the death penalty in the December 16 Nirbhaya rape case. Delivering a different sentence, he was commended for it, saying the case had entered a "rarest of rare" category, where the question of another sentence was "inevitably eaten up". Add that if at all there was a case authorizing the death penalty, it was this. Within this area, Justice Banumathi is known as a junior judge who focuses on that summary and is strongly guided by the law. If there is a women's side to him, he doesn't expose it.

Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (2011-14 ) As a lawyer, Desai relied on criminal matters before being appointed public prosecutor in 1986. During his years of legal expertise, he served as one of the judges supporting the death sentence handed down to Ajmal Kasab, the only survivor of the Mumbai Terrorist attack on November 26, 2008. He was also part of a bench that said FIR registration for alleged crimes was compulsory. In a unique case, she, along with Judge Gyan Sudha Misra, formed “all women on the bench” listening to the April 2013 news due to the absence of another judge who was supposed to be part of the bench.

Justice Ruma Pal (2000-06) By sitting in the Supreme Court for six years, he was a legally strong man and apparently was also considered the highest court judge in India. He was referring to issues related to women, emphasizing, for example, the cruelty and cruelty of the reasons for divorce. As a former judge, he has expressed concern about legal accountability and the lack of a mechanism to do so. He had a reputation for being fearless in expressing his views, even if that meant criticizing his colleagues. He was part of a three-judge college that rejected the extension of a Madras high court judge on corruption charges. He aims to be more visible in the appointment of judges. In a commemorative speech, he criticized the judiciary for its "seven sins", which included arrogance, hiring relatives, and pride in the immorality of his colleagues.

Justice Gyan Sudha Misra (2010-14) After serving as chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court for nearly two years, his position in the high court saw four years of incidents in which he was part of various important cases. He was part of the bench that carried out the first clean-up of the Cricket Regulatory Board in India by preventing Narayanaswami Srinivasan from running for office on the board following a stalemate. He was also praised for highlighting the difference between active patient murder and what happened in the case of Aruna Shanbaug, who was kept alive following sexual assault in 1973. Despite his gains, he was criticized for being too late in court.

Author:

Er. Jitender Chatra

Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering

Geeta Engineering College