During the hearing of the appointment of ad hoc judges to High Courts, Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde said “We have the interest of women in our minds and we are implementing it best. There is no attitude change in us. The only thing is we have to get good candidates.”
While heading a three judge bench, CJI Bobde disclosed that The Chief Justices of High Courts had invited many women to become judges but many refused as they had domestic responsibilities, had to take care of their children etc. He wanted the Collegium to pay attention to appoint women judges.
The Women Lawyers Association was represented by Sneha Khalita and Shoba Gupta. They argued that only 11% of women were in the judiciary and more women should be appointed as judges. Out of the 25 High Courts in the country, currently only one Court has a woman Chief Justice- Chief Justice Hima Kohli at the Telangana High Court.
They also pointed out that out of the 661 High Court judges in the country, only 73 were women and that there was not a single woman judge in the High Courts of Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura and Uttarakhand.
