Less Than One-Third of Judges in Lower Judiciary Are Women
Differences in the gender balance between the different tiers may hint at potential bias in promotional processes.
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Fewer than one-third of judges in the lower judiciary – district courts and below – in 17 of 34 states and union territories in India are female, according to a February 2018 analysis by the New Delhi-based legal think tank, Vidhi Center For Legal Policy.
Women comprise 48.5 percent of the general population, and the domination of men in the lower judiciary, the frontline of the judicial system, might reduce courts’ legitimacy as representative of the societies they serve.
The inclusion of women in the judiciary enables courts to understand the real-world implications of their rulings, and reduces barriers to women’s access to justice, such as stigma associated with reporting violence and abuse, the report said. It could also signal “equality of opportunity for women in the legal profession and an appointments process that is merit-based, fair, and non-discriminatory”.
The Vidhi analysis used names of judges as reported on court websites between March and July 2017.
Bihar, with 11.5 percent of all its lower courts judges female, had the lowest proportion of women judges in the lower judiciary of all states analysed, followed by Jharkhand (13.9 percent), Gujarat (15.1%) and Jammu and Kashmir (18.6%).
The highest proportion of women judges in the lower judiciary was in Meghalaya (73.8%), followed by Goa (65.9%) and Sikkim (64.7%).
The proportion of female judges is lower at the level of the district judge than at lower levels, the analysis showed. For instance, in Madhya Pradesh, 42.1 percent of civil judges (junior division) were female compared to 13.6 percent of district judges.
Lack of Data on Gender Diversity in Indian Judiciary
If there were fewer female civil judges (junior division) in 1995 than now, fewer women judges would currently occupy higher posts in the lower judiciary, since higher posts are mostly filled through promotion from civil judges (junior division), the report explained.
“Given that men and women are equally meritorious, in the absence of discrimination, one would assume that the proportion of women judges will remain the same from the lowest to the higher tiers, for any given batch of judicial officers.”
However, without information on the number of women graduating from law school, applying for judicial positions, and promotions over the years, it is difficult to understand the reasons behind the gender imbalance in the lower judiciary or the changes in the gender composition over time.
For the report, data on judges in the lower judiciary was collected from websites of different courts across states, and the gender of the judges determined on the basis of their prefix, and by using Gender-API.com, a database of names from across the world.
“There are no systematic efforts to regularly compile and publish even basic data on the proportion of women judges in different levels of Indian courts,” the report said. It is especially challenging to understand the composition of the lower judiciary given the large numbers of districts and judges and unavailability of nationwide statistics, the report explained.
The Supreme Court and High Courts are the ‘higher judiciary’, while District Courts and below are the ‘lower’ or ‘subordinate’ judiciary.
Women are underrepresented even as higher levels in the judiciary.
Across India’s 24 High Courts, a little more than 10 percent judges are women, with not even a single woman judge in eight High Courts, the report found.
(The story was originally published on India Spend and has been republished with permission.)
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