Goyal raises issue of lack of women in judiciary

At a time when the judiciary is grappling with large number of vacancies of judges in higher judiciary, Union minister Piyush Goyal today said the collegium should take note of lesser representation of women in the judicial system, a fact acknowledged by Supreme Court judge Justice A K Sikri.

He highlighted the recent achievements of sportswomen in Rio Olympics and the central government's scheme 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao', and mentioned about the lack of women in higher judiciary.

Goyal's view that there is a lack of women in Indian judiciary was acknowledged by Justice Sikri, who was the chief guest at an event here to award a scholarship -- Pratibha M Singh Cambridge LLM Scholarship.
 

"Since the girls of this country are doing great in the world, collegium should take note of the lack of their presence in our judiciary and I hope that we will be able to see more women in this field," he said, noting that the lawyers' community has always made the country proud.

Justice Sikri said at the event, "The world is changing. Girls are leading in almost every field. In judiciary also, women are doing better than earlier. Over a period of time, in next 15-20 years, we might see more women judges in high courts and the Supreme Court."

He said that there was a need to help the student community more so that they can grow as better professionals and contribute more to the society.

Sikri asked the lawyers and other professionals in the legal field to contribute more to the society and take it as a responsibility.

Senior advocate Pratibha M Singh, after whom the award was named, said that the purpose of the grant was to help meritorious students to go abroad for higher legal studies so that they return to India and contribute to the country's legal field.

During the event, Ashwini Vaidialingam, a law graduate from National Law School of Indian University, Benguluru, was awarded the scholarship. She will join the University of Cambridge for pursuing LLM.