Women's Day - "I Don't Think I Was Elevated As SC Judge Because I Was A Lady": Justice Indira Banerjee

Providing reservation to women undermines their capabilities, Supreme Court judge, Justice Indira Banerjee said Thursday while speaking at an event here on the eve of International Women's Day.

Women should be capable in every respect and they have proven time and again to be so, Justice Banerjee said, at a seminar-cum workshop organised by the Citizen's Rights Trust.

"If you ask me, providing reservation to women undermines their capabilities. Women should be capable in every respect and they have proved to be so," Justice Banerjee said, adding that she herself has been subjected to comments because of these existing reservations which she has found "awfully insulting".

"When I was elevated as a judge in the Calcutta High Court, for four and a half years I was the only woman judge there. Male colleagues on the bench would say it on my face that I got a benefit because I was a woman. I wanted income figures matched, sufficient number of judgments, I have fulfilled those criteria. I don't think I was elevated as a Supreme Court judge because I was a lady. I happened to be a lady," she said.

March 8 is marked as International Women's Day.

Justice Pratibha M Singh, a Delhi High Court judge, said that rather than getting laws made to protect the rights of women, the change should be in the mindset.

While talking about the struggle of women litigators, Justice Singh said though there is a stigma attached to women being litigators, more women are joining the legal profession.

"It is a tough profession. Firstly it is tough to be a woman and in litigation. Then to be a mother and in litigation. Then a wife and in litigation... Mothers of daughters come to me and say they would like their daughters to change their profession soon so that they can get them married... We can see the pyramid widening because large number of women are joining litigation," she said.

"We can see in district judiciary that in a place like Delhi, women constitute 50 percent of the judicial system. It is not any kind of statute's doing. It is the simple change in mindset. This is how it should be. Change should be organic. It should not be by simply fighting and getting law made," she added.

Justice Singh further said that sometimes one may think laws were beneficial but maternity benefits, for example, dissuade employers from employing women.

"The more maternity benefits are granted, employers, if they have an equal man and a woman, they prefer the man. That's why in some countries maternity benefits are reduced... Laws have to kind of take care and balance the gender protection," she said.

Senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, said that women are required to lead the nation as they have more compassion, concern and are more caring.

"If we can help one woman who is facing gender discrimination, we will do great service to the nation... Women are not the weaker sex. Let's end this debate once and for all," he said.

Justice Banerjee said that although women have proven time and again their capabilities to lead, "we are still talking about women to lead the nation because although they constitute 50 percent of the population over the world, they are financially weaker, less educated, less confident, less nourished, more prone to malnutrition related illness, subjected to domestic violence at home and sexual harassment at the workplace".

She further said that in order for women to lead, we have to educate them and added the need to recognise the vast number of women in unorganised sector.

Justice Singh also talked about women in science and scientific research and noted that hardly any patents are granted to women in India.