GENDER DIVERSITY IN

HIGHER JUDICIARY:
A NEED
INTRODUCTION
 Even after 74 years of independence, higher judiciary of
India paints a sad picture when it comes to equal
representation of women in the benches.
 As per the recent reports only 12% of the judges in
higher judiciary are women.
 Ever since the establishment of the SC till 1989, all the
93 judges have all been men.
 It took almost four decades after the establishment of the
SC for a woman (J. Fatima Biwi) to become a judge in
the SC and it was only in 2018 that a female senior
lawyer (J. Indu Malhotra) was directly appointed as a SC
Judge.
STATS
 Women Judges in SC
 The first-ever woman judge in the SC was appointed in

1989, 39 years after the apex court came into existence.

Since then, only 10 women have become judges in the
apex court.
 Women Judges in HCs
 Women judges account for only 11% of HC judges. In

Patna, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura and Uttarakhand, no

woman ever served as a judge.
 Women Judges in DCs
 Women's representation in lower judiciary is slightly

better where 28% of the judges are women.

REASONS FOR LOW REPRESENTATION

1. Opaque Collegium System Functioning

2. No Women Reservation

3. Familial Responsibilities

4. Not Enough Women in Litigation

1. (only 15% of all advocates are women)

5. No serious attempt 
SOLUTIONS

1. Changing Patriarchal Mindset

1. ‘Old Boys Club’

2. Provision of Reservation

3. Vacancies as an Opportunity
1. 40% vacancy in HCs
CONCLUSION
 Diversity of the judges of the SC enhances the court’s
legitimacy. Legitimacy is a significant requirement of any
decision-making body and therefore, a diverse judiciary, which
gives substantive representation to women, is indeed a
necessity for the HCs and SC at present.
 Surely, things are changing in favor of making judiciary gender
representative and inclusive and that can be gauged from the
following words of CJI Ramana: “Enough of suppression of
thousands of years. It is high time we have 50% representation
of women in judiciary. It is your right. It is not a matter of
charity’.