Blitz Bureau
JUSTICE BV Nagarathna of the Supreme Court on has called for 30 per cent reservation for women advocates in state and Central Government lawyers’ panels. She was speaking at a seminar on “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women Who Made It,” organised by the University of Mumbai and the Indian Council of Social Science Research, as part of the centenary celebrations of Cornelia Sorabji, the first female advocate in India.
She said that at least 30 per cent of the government law officers should be women and a similar number of women lawyers should be in the panel of legal advisors for public sector units. Lack of adequate representation of women in legal advisory roles has resulted in systemic gender inequality, she opined.
Justice Nagarathna also highlighted the issue of women under representation in the judiciary, adding that women under 45 years old are often not appointed as judges of high courts despite the fact that men below that age are regularly appointed. “If male advocates can be appointed even though they are less than 45 years to the High Courts, then why not competent women advocates,” she asked.
She also highlighted the pivotal contributions of women who have broken through professional barriers. She spoke of Sorabji’s achievements, particularly her completion of a Bachelor of Civil Law from Oxford University, making her the first woman to do so.
Sorabji then became the first Indian woman to practice law and used her legal expertise to support vulnerable women and children.
She also recounted the struggles of Regina Guha, one of the first women to attempt joining the legal profession. Guha had applied to be enrolled as a pleader at the district court in Alipore but the Calcutta High Court ruled against her stating that the Legal Practitioners Act made no reference to women.
Justice Nagarathna also acknowledged the contributions of other pioneering women in law, including Justice Anna Chandy, the first woman District Judge in 1937 and later the first woman High Court Judge in 1959. She noted that Chandy, like many other women in law, faced opposition and mockery from male students and professors. She further celebrated Justice Fathima Beevi, the first woman to serve as a judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Besides them, Justice Nagarathna also talked about the achievements of ‘unsung women’, who although may not have made their name through professional achievements, contributed significantly and left their imprints on the lives around them.
