not only inherent in courts, but also among litigants and the entire setup. Such biases create an extremely unwelcome and unhealthy atmosphere within the courts. This is the reason why the Chief Justice of India reiterated that it is the duty of all lawyers and the judges to ensure that a friendly environment is created in the courtrooms.
The launch of the #MeToo movement and the efforts being made by a section of men, which has resulted in the ‘He for She’ movement, have both brought to the forefront the glaring inequalities that women face on the professional and personal fronts. A lot is being said in this context these days.
The Chief Justice is also promoting the issue of women’s representation in the judiciary. At a recent event he said, “The demand for higher representation beyond 50 per cent on the Bench in view of the backlog of under representation of women is taken note of. I promise to take up your demand with my Brothers in the collegium.”
This was in reply to questions about under-representation of women in the judiciary.

India is sadly a country where women are vastly underrepresented in the judiciary. Only 11.5% of the judges in the High Courts are women. We have four sitting women judges out of 33 judges in office in the Supreme Court. This figure shows that women still have a long way to go before they can be said to have a sound representation in the legal arena.
At a felicitation function organised for her, Justice Hima Kohli who is a sitting Supreme Court judge said, “The time will never be right for women to make a mark in the legal profession.”
This refers to the fact that if women keep waiting for the perfect time when the situation is right for them to join a particular profession, it will never come. She reminisced about how she herself had started her practice and how she used her car as an office space. Justice Hima Kohli then went on to say that ‘The time is now’. Women have to make a conscious decision to start and not wait for the right time to come as the time will never be right.
The legal profession in India has come a long way to reach where it is today. While initially it was felt

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