Women should demand equal role in judiciary as a right: India's top judge

NEW DELHI - Indian women should demand 50 percent reservation in the country's judiciary as a matter of right and not mere charity, said the country's topmost judge Justice N.V. Ramana on Sunday.

Speaking at an event held by women lawyers in Delhi, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India stated that women must "shout with anger and demand 50 percent reservation", not as charity but as a matter of right.

Acknowledging thousands of years of suppression of women, he said that it was high time India realised and reached this goal in the apex courts and other subordinate courts.

Citing statistics about women's representation in judiciary, Justice Ramana said that women constituted less than 30 percent strength of the lower judiciary, while at the High Court, they were at a meagre 11 percent of the total.

"At the Supreme Court, we now have four out of 33 judges," the CJI said and added that amongst 1.7 million lawyers only 15 percent were women, while they constituted only 2 percent of the elected representatives at the states' bar councils.

Calling for a better infrastructure at the courts across the country, he said that the proposal of setting up the Judicial Infrastructure Corporation was the need of the hour.

Pinpointing lack of infrastructure at the courts particularly concerning women, he said that around 22 percent of the total courts in the country did not have toilets due to which lady lawyers or officers suffered.