There has never been a woman CJI, says Attorney-General

Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal on Wednesday took the Supreme Court’s invitation to recommend methods to gender-sensitise judges as a possibility to inform the courtroom it has never had a woman Chief Justice.

He advised the Supreme Court that extra girls judges in constitutional courts would definitely enhance gender sensitivity within the judiciary.

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“Improving the representation of women could also go a long way towards a more balanced and empathetic approach in cases involving sexual violence. For instance, this court has only two women judges as against a sanctioned strength of 34 judges. There has never been a female Chief Justice. This figure is consistently low across the higher judiciary. There are only 80 women judges out of the sanctioned strength of 1,113 judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court,” he mentioned.

Only two of those 80 girls judges are within the Supreme Court and the opposite 78 are in numerous High Courts, comprising solely 7.2% of the variety of judges. There are six High Courts — Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura, Telangana, and Uttarakhand — the place there aren’t any sitting girls judges, he identified.

The prime legislation officer was responding to a request from the courtroom to help it in a case from the Madhya Pradesh High Court. This courtroom had not too long ago handed an order granting bail to an alleged sexual molester. The circumstances for grant of bail included visiting his sufferer at her house, tying a rakhi on her and giving cash and sweets to her and her son. Eight girls legal professionals of the Supreme Court had introduced this order to the eye of the apex courtroom. They had challenged the High Court’s ‘trivialisation’ of the sufferer’s trauma.

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Mr. Venugopal, in his written submissions, mentioned judges must be skilled to put themselves within the footwear of the sufferer of sexual violence whereas passing orders. They have to assess the crime as if it had been dedicated on a member of their very own household.

He pointed to the dearth of obligatory programs in gender sensitisation in legislation colleges.

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“Certain law schools have the subject either as a specialisation or as an elective. Equally, the All India Bar Examination does not contain even a single question or section relating to gender sensitisation. The Bar Council of India may take necessary steps in this regard,” Mr. Venugopal really helpful.