Justice Nagarathna calls for inclusive, diverse judiciary

The participation of women in the judiciary is not only a constitutional imperative but also a necessary step to achieve the goal of robust, transparent, inclusive, effective and credible judicial process, Supreme Court judge BV Nagarathna said on Friday, emphasising that having more women on the bench can contribute to a more effective space for the delivery of justice in India.

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Delivering the 28th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lecture in the national capital, justice Nagarathna maintained that "there is an urgent need for all organs of the state, institutions engaged in the regulation and growth of the legal profession and institutions engaged in legal education to work within their mandate to make the Indian judiciary more inclusive and diverse".

According to the judge who is poised to take over as the first woman Chief Justice of India (CJI) in 2027, having more woman as judges would contribute significantly to improving the quality of judicial review and adjudication.

"I will only point to three reasons for this. First, (it) is the matter of the credibility and legitimacy of courts; second, (it) is about the language and vocabularies of judgments and third, (it) is the administration of courts and the need for different experiences to ensure courts become more gender-neutral spaces," said justice Nagarathna.

Speaking on the topic "The role of the judiciary in the empowerment of Indian woman', the judge cited a spree of landmark top court judgments that marshalled women's fights for equality, equal opportunity, dignity and autonomy. She said that the judiciary's role as the protector of fundamental rights is not limited to checking state action but also in some circumstances, initiating a transformative social dialogue as a part of transformative constitutionalism.

"The Indian judiciary has played a yeoman's role in the noble national endeavour for gender equality," said justice Nagarathna, adding the institutional role of the judiciary in this quest has three distinct, yet intersecting dimensions.