On Wednesday, Attorney General for India K K Venugopal told the Apex Court that improving the abysmal representation of women in the Supreme Court, HC's & Trial Courts would go a long way in checking Judges from passing bail orders that display gender insensitivity & stereotyping of women.
Lamenting that there had never been a woman Chief Justice of India even after seventy years of becoming a republic, the top law officer said, “Improving representation of women in the judiciary can also go a long way towards a more balanced & empathetic approach in cases involving sexual violence.”
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“This initiative must come from the SC itself, considering that the power of appointment rests almost exclusively with the SC collegium. The goal must be to achieve at least 50% representation of women in all leadership positions,” he said. The Supreme Court had sought Venugopal’s suggestions on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Lawyer Aparna Bhat, who had flagged numerous Trial Court and High Court orders which were insensitive towards rape survivors while granting bail to the accused & had sought remedial measures. One High Court Judge, while granting bail to an accused in a sexual assault case, had asked him to go to the rape survivor’s house & get a rakhi tied from her.
Venugopal made no bones about his disappointment before a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar & S Ravindra Bhat over the small number of women judges in the SC & HCs, as also the minuscule number of women senior advocates. He said there were only 80 women High Court Judges across India against a sanctioned strength of 1,113 High Court Judges.
There are only 2 women Supreme Court Judges. Their numbers in OECD countries were much higher, the AG said. “There are six high courts — Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand — where there are no women judges. At the same time, six other HCs have only one woman judge,” he said. The High Court of Punjab and Haryana has the highest eleven women Judges, followed by the High Court of Madras with nine.
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