BENGALURU: Despite a growing number of women entering the legal profession, their journey to the top remains riddled with obstacles. A report by the city-based Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) reveals that women judges in the Supreme Court serve, on average, one year less than their male counterparts — a gap that significantly impacts their chances of rising to senior positions.
The report, titled ‘Equal justice: Addressing the gender gap in the higher judiciary in India’, which was presented in the tech capital Saturday, highlights the systemic gender discrimination in judicial appointments and the impact it has on women leadership in judiciary.
The average age of appointment to the apex court is 59.5 years for men and 60.5 years for women, as per the report. The age of appointment also impacts the average tenure. Going by the data collated, the average tenure of women judges is 4.4 years, as against men who serve about 5.4 years.
Nithya Rhea Rajshekar, senior research associate at CLPR, said: “One might think it is just an year of age difference. But when you look at Supreme Court tenures, which are roughly only five years, one year is a huge mark. As a result, women judges have shorter tenures and rarely reach the senior ranks of the bench, which comprise the collegium. Justice BV Nagarathna is scheduled to become the first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027, but her tenure will be only 36 days. This raises questions about why she wasn’t appointed earlier.”
The case is no different for the high courts. The average age of appointment to the high court is 51.8 years for men and 53.1 for women. In some high courts, on an average, women are appointed as judges more than three years later than men. “Speaking of chief justices in the 25 high courts which we have across the country, 15 courts have never had a woman act as chief justice, which means there has never been a senior-most woman in 15 courts in the entire country,” Nithya added.
Aparna Chandra, professor, National Law School of India University, highlighted, “In Supreme Court appointments, the collegium primarily selects high court chief justices; 86% of appointments post 1993 came from this pool, compared to 53% under the earlier executive system. This limits opportunities for those from the lower judiciary. Women face additional barriers, often appointed at older ages and after serving as chief justice in multiple high courts. Only 12 out of 242 high court chief justices appointed by the collegium have been women.”
Ranjin Tripathy, professor, National Law University Odisha, said, “Judicial appointments lack transparency, making reforms difficult. There should be publicly available data on which collegium appointed which judges, who was involved, and which appointments were rejected. This data is needed, not just at the Supreme Court but also at the high court level.”
