A recent report by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy highlights an important but often forgotten aspect of the Indian judiciary: how diverse are our courts? How reflective are they of the population to which they administer justice? The report focuses on the number of women judges in the lower judiciary of the country, which is just 27.6 per cent. Some states have quotas for women judges and fare better.
Others such as Bihar, with just 11.52 per cent, fare worse. There are even a handful of districts in India with no women judges. The report, which argues for the need for more data on the matter, posits a few theories. It asks if there could be a correlation with sex ratios, with entrenched sexism, with old boys’ networks that hinder promotions, etc. There exist very real barriers for women to gain an education, to enter a profession—more so one like law—and to pursue it against societal odds and prejudice.
The issue then, often not considered, is what is lost as a result? What justice can a judiciary provide without accounting for the experiences and realities of a half of the population? While women are not a homogenous entity, the absence of their voice in the judicial system does injury to the idea of justice. Similarly lost are the voices and experiences of Dalits and adivasis, religious and sexual minorities.
Disturbingly, redressing this lack of diversity appears to be nowhere on the judiciary’s agenda. While large-scale societal ills cannot be fixed by the judiciary itself, it must work towards dismantling the barriers preventing women and marginalised groups from entering the legal profession and moving up the ranks. These efforts may include maternal supports, functional sexual harassment committees or methods of evaluation that don’t favour the male candidate over the female. In the UK, diversity ‘targets with teeth’ were considered. But perhaps the judiciary could begin by taking a long, hard look at the numbers and recognising that there is a problem that needs to be addressed.