Chief Justice of India Justice N.V. Ramana on Tuesday said he is a strong advocate of teaching children in their mother tongue since it enables them to think clearly.
Speaking at the felicitation of Supreme Court judge Justice Hima Kohli by the Women In Law and Litigation (WILL) in Delhi on her elevation to the Supreme Court, Justice Ramana said he’s a voracious reader of books though he studied in Telugu medium schools as Telugu was his mother tongue. “Mother tongue is important and I advocate strongly,” the CJI said, urging mothers among the gathering to teach their children in their mother tongue.
Addressing the women from the legal fraternity, Justice Ramana noted that more women were joining the legal profession now. He recalled a recent convocation he attended at the National Law University Delhi. The CJI said 50% of the convocation strength were girls. Further, all gold medals barring 1-2 were won by girls. “I’m happy, this is a good signal,” he said.
The disappointing thing, the CJI noted, was that when he asked the medal-winning girls what they wanted to do, only one of the 5 said she wanted to get into litigation and the rest spoke of entering law firms and civil field. That ratio has to improve. I wish the majority of women come to this profession, the CJI said.
Justice Ramana said he would take up the demand for higher representation for women judges beyond 50% on the Bench in view of backlog of under representation of women is taken note of.
“Representation of women in all levels within the profession is quite low. I had mentioned some statistics in an earlier speech which I think merits repeating. Women constitute only around 30% of the judges in our lower judiciary on average. Some States have a good number of women judges, whereas in other States the representation is abysmal,”
-Justice Ramana said.
On the onerous responsibility he has, the CJI said,
“Sister Justice Hima Kohli inquired with concern If I am under stress. Yes. I am under stress. Being the Chief Justice is stressful, I cannot avoid. I have to deal with it.”
Talking about the shortfall in judicial infrastructure, CJI Ramana said some courts don’t have facilities of rest rooms for women and some don’t even have washrooms. He said he is advocating that the infrastructure of the courts be provided by the government so that anyone can go to court comfortably.
“These issues can’t be solved in one day but I’m trying and highlighting, hope the Government will take steps,” the CJI said.
Justice Ramana called upon the gathering to put forth their concerns to him and he would try to address them. On a lighter note, he said he had been the secretary of the tobacco union which had 20,000 women and said he was used to speaking and listening to such large gatherings of women.
Supreme Court judges Justice Hima Kohli, the patron of (WILL), Justice Indira Banerjee, Delhi High Court judges Justice Mukta Gupta, Justice Pratibha M. Singh, Justice Rekha Palli, WILL President Senior Advocate Maninder Acharya and WILL Vice President Senior Advocate Rebecca John addressed the gathering.
Read the full speech of CJI Justice N.V. Ramana below
WILL-Felicitation-of-Justice-Hima-Kohli-ji-14122021