Judiciary not representative: President Kovind

President seeks steps to have more women, members of OBCs and Scheduled communities in courts.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, President Ramnath Kovind, and Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra at a National Law Day celebration in New Delhi on Saturday.

Expressing concern over the “unacceptably low” representation of women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in the higher judiciary, President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday called for long-term measures to remedy this situation. 

He said that only 4,700 of the 17,000 judges — roughly one in four — in India were women.

“In addition, there is an unacceptably low representation of traditionally weaker sections such as OBCs, SCs and STs, especially in the higher judiciary,” the President said at the inauguration of the National Law Day conference, which is jointly organised by the Law Commission and NITI Aayog. 

“Like our other public institutions, our judiciary too has to be judicious in being representative of the diversity of our country,” he said. 

Mr. Kovind said all the three organs of the State — the judiciary, the executive and the legislature — needed to be careful not to cross into one another’s finely defined spaces. “Public life is today a glasshouse. There is a relentless demand for transparency and scrutiny. Our legal fraternity needs to be mindful of these legitimate urges of the people — the ultimate masters in a democracy. All three organs of the State are obligated to be models of good conduct,” he said. 

Explaining his comments, he said that when extraneous comments and

obiter dicta  came to dominate public debates, it crowded out a substantive understanding and deliberation of a well-thought-out judgment.

Speedy justice

Mr. Kovind said that there was a crying need to ensure speedy justice. “While we take pride in our courts and their independence, it is a paradox that the poor often shy away from a legal battle, worried about the duration and the cost,” he said. 

He called for relook at “adjournments”. “As I have said earlier, perhaps the time has come to examine the issue of adjournments and whether they are to be limited just to absolute emergencies or continued to be allowed to be used for tactical delays by one party or the other,” he said. 

The President said there was a need to look at alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Mr. Kovind said lawyer fees needed to be brought down and India’s reputation of having an expensive legal system must be changed.