Women judges of Kerala can now wear trendy outfits like long skirts, churidar and full-sleeve shirts and pants to court halls and need not stick to the traditional attire — the saree and blouse combo, anymore.
The Kerala High Court last week cleared a request from women judges allowing them to wear modern dresses in courts. An official circular permitting the judges to choose salwar kameez, churidar, long skirts, shirts and pants and full-sleeve blouses and sarees as the official dress will be issued on October 9, thus modifying their more than half a century-old dress code. However, the women will not have the freedom to choose the colour of the dress and will have to stick to the black and white colour combination, to appear formally dressed during the court proceedings.
The existing dress code for Kerala judges, which didn’t have any mention of saree, had insisted that women shall wear “regional dress of subdued colour, white stiff or soft collar bands with a Barrister’s or Bachelor of Law’s gown. Men shall wear black open-collar coats, white shirts, and white stiff or soft-collar bands with a Barrister’s or Bachelor of Law’s gown” in courts.
However, the dress code of the men remains unchanged.
The Hindu had earlier reported that a section of the women officers had written to the Registry seeking to modify the dress code. The officers had highlighted the discomfort caused by wearing sarees in hot and humid conditions in the poorly ventilated chambers and packed court halls during summer months. They had also complained that the old-fashioned dress code was taking a toll on their health in summer when the atmospheric temperature would be around 40 Degrees Celsius. The frequent power disruptions and the absence of power backup systems in court complexes often worsened the situation, they had complained.
The High Court had appointed a committee of judges to look into the representation. The report of the committee was then placed before the Administrative Committee and later at a Full Court meeting which was attended by all the judges. Kerala Chief Justice A.J. Desai made a formal announcement on the modified dress code at a meeting of the Judicial Officers Association on October 8.
