Women make up as few as 6% of district court advocates

Wednesday, 21 December 2011 By Legally India Bar, Bench & Litigation

The Hindustan Times reported today that only 60 to 70 practising advocates in the Gurgaon district courts were women, compared to 1,200 men.

According to figures that appear to have been provided by the Gurgaon’s District Bar Association, 8 per cent or 250 of 3,149 registered advocates at the same court were lawyers.

In the Faridabad district bar, 14 per cent, or 250 women advocates out of a total of 1,800 lawyers were members.

Twenty-four-year-old advocate Ayesha Matharu who lives in Gurgaon but practices in Delhi, told the HT: “I started my career from the local court here but moved to Delhi within a few days. I didn’t like what I saw here. I wasn’t comfortable and felt apprehensive since there are very few women lawyers. People would stare me down.”

Local Gurgaon lawyer Sunita Srivastava told the paper: “Unlike Delhi where most law firms hire the young crop of lawyers at high salaries, not many corporate lawyers work in the Gurgaon court.”

Legally India’s analysis of senior counsel promotions earlier this year showed that only six women were elevated in 20 years, out of more than 200 senior counsel appointments, while the Bombay High Court in September again did not elevate any women to the position.

women district court

Comments

A 21 Dec 2011, 10:33

+1 -0

Why a woman should be promoted to a higher post just because of her gender ?

jinesh 22 Dec 2011, 08:14

+3 -0

because the reason is that nothing is impossible for man who tries and for a woman who cries

A 22 Dec 2011, 08:38

+0 -0

haha !!

Not funny 22 Dec 2011, 08:46

Title says it all. Typical sexism and tasteless jokes exhibited by most male lawyers.

ROFL 28 Dec 2011, 05:26

regardless of whether the comment is good or bad, its a good one!

B 22 Dec 2011, 05:32

Chalo, reservation shuru kar do! :)

Anon 22 Dec 2011, 10:21

Kian, the Title is misleading. If one reads the article, the statistic is only for Gurgaon and Delhi. The headline suggests that it is pan India.

kianganz 22 Dec 2011, 10:25

Thanks for your comment, I do understand that it might imply that this is a pan India figure. But I think it's actually quite accurate in the literal sense, as it says "as few as 6%", implying that this is the lowest available figure without making a statement of whether there are higher or lower figures out there.

Best wishes,
Kian

Anon 22 Dec 2011, 10:30

+2 -0

Dear Male Advocates,

How many of you actually intend to marry a female advocate from reputed law firm; forget the practicing advocate in the Court ? This introspection itself tell you the real story. No need to cross examine anybody to verify the ground reality.

A 22 Dec 2011, 10:40

What has marriage got to do with it ?

Anon 22 Dec 2011, 11:53

Only a girl can understand the difficulty in thinking of a profession - continuing the same - and continuing the family life with the husband

anon 23 Dec 2011, 04:08

So don't marry!
[quote name="Anon"]Only a girl can understand the difficulty in thinking of a profession - continuing the same - and continuing the family life with the husband[/quote]

ugh 23 Dec 2011, 15:29

because everything is that black and white, no?

idiot.

Sagar Godbole 28 Dec 2011, 09:34

Hey Kian!

""According to figures that appear to have been provided by the Gurgaon’s District Bar Association, 8 per cent or 250 of 3,149 registered advocates at the same court were lawyers.""

What does that 2nd para mean? 8% registered advocates were lawyers? huh? It seems to imply 92% of those registered are not lawyers at all!

Perhaps the word 'female' is missing before the last word lawyers. Typo?

Commenting is closed for this article.