December 3,2017:

Out of 17,000 Judges in our subordinate courts, the HC’s and SC, only about 4,700 are Women.

In strong criticism of judiciary for an “unacceptably low” representation of the women, OBCs, the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, President Ram Nath Kovind asked higher judiciary to take long-term measures to remedy the lopsided situation.

President Kovind further stated that, “Without in any manner compromising on the quality, we need to take long-term measures to remedy this situation.”

President Kovind made the point that judiciary could not be too different from the other public institutions where the caste quotas are implemented.

He further added that,”Like our other public institutions, our judiciary too has to be judicious in being representative of diversity of our country… breadth and depth of our society”.

But he stopped short of calling for the quotas, while he clearly suggested some form of affirmative action on judiciary’s part to consciously improve poor representation of the certain segments of  the society.

President Kovind is himself is a qualified as a lawyer and hails from the Dalit family stated that poor are often deterred by the costs and duration of the legal processes.

He thus concluded that disparity needs to be addressed and suggested that in an age of the instant communication, technology and the modern tools could speed up justice delivery process.

President also expressed his concern over an expensive legal system stating that this was in part because of the delays, but there is the question of affordability.

 

Source - ptinews.com