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Suppressing women will affect progress: judge

By Our Staff Reporter

Justice AR. Lakshmanan, judge, Supreme Court (second from left), handing over a copy of a souvenir to B. Krishnaveni, senior member, Women Lawyers Association, during the 40th anniversary celebrations of the association, in Chennai on Saturday. Looking on (from left) are Justice B. Subhashan Reddy, Chief Justice, Madras High Court; K. Santhakumari, WLA president, and D. Jayakumar, Law Minister. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI NOV. 29. The just demands of women will be a realised only if more representation is given to them in police, judicial services and politics, Justice AR. Lakshmanan, judge, Supreme Court, said today.

Speaking at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Women Lawyers Association here, Mr. Justice Lakshmanan said that as per United Nations' reports women constituted half the world's population, accounted for nearly two-thirds of work hours, received one-tenth of world's income, but owned less than one per cent of world's property.

Expressing concern over the descending male-female ratio, the judge said a rape took place every 54 minutes and a dowry death occurred every 1,000 minutes. Malnutrition and mortality rates were higher among girls; two-third of illiterate people in the world were women and 70 per cent of dropouts from schools were girl children.

On the political front in India, Mr. Justice Lakshmanan said representation of women in Parliament never went beyond eight per cent, 10 per cent in Assemblies and 13 per cent in the Council of Ministers.

Despite a plethora of laws and policies protective of women and the multiple roles women played nowadays, they still belonged to a disadvantaged section of the society. Women accounted for about 50 per cent of the population in India, and "we cannot expect any sort of progress, enrichment or development by oppressing or suppressing half of our population." The atmosphere in courts could be changed to a large extent if there were more women judges, he said. The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, B. Subhashan Reddy, conceding a long-pending demand of the association members, said he had already passed orders for a creche on the High Court premises. Mr. Justice Reddy said he had already written to the Government seeking the return of a land ceded by the judiciary to the transport department. Though the Government had accepted in principle to return the land at Esplanade, the technical aspects of the assurance had to be worked out.

Having topped the disposal rate in the entire country, the Madras High Court was nearing the 3 lakh-mark in disposals this year, he said. He pointed out that during his tenure as Chief Justice, 33 per cent reservation had been given to women in appointment of judicial officers, and 44 out of the 103 civil judges recruited last month were women.

The Law Minister, D. Jayakumar, lamented that women were being tied down in the name of outdated customs and traditions. The cradle baby scheme, formation of self-help groups, all-women police stations, mahila courts, and the appointment of women in fire and rescue services department were women-oriented welfare measures initiated by the Government. The association president, K. Santhakumari, who welcomed the gathering, said the proposed creche should be located near the association library. A number of High Court judges, the Supreme Court Advocates Association president, Parekh, the Madras High Court Advocates Association president, S. Prabakaran, the Madras Bar Association president, R. Gandhi, the WLA vice-president, Daniel Mary, and the secretary, Manjula Devi participated.

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