Sathasivam for more women, SC/ST judges

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN | Jul 18, 2013, 01.15 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice-designate P Sathasivam on Wednesday said he would favour relaxation of stringent selection criteria to see more Judges in SC and HCs from among women, SC, ST and OBCs, in a not-so-subtle pitch for caste/community/gender-based quotas in the recruitment of judges to higher judiciary. 

"There is no provision for the reservation for women and backward classes in appointment of judges to the higher judiciary. For long, there had been very little space for these sections in the higher judiciary. Appointing them as Judges in theSupreme Court and the high court without compromising the basic merit criteria would reflect country's social diversity and would send a healthy signal to the society at large," justice Sathasivam told TOI just two days before he takes oath as the 40th Chief Justice of India (CJI). 

The CJI-designate said, "I am all for relaxing the selection criteria. As the next Chief Justice of India it is my responsibility to convince the apex court collegium the need for giving meritorious among the backward classes a small helping hand." 

He elaborated by saying that while backward class members who have chosen a career in law and aspiring to be Judges must help themselves by equipping themselves to satisfy basic requirements for selection as a judge before demanding their pie in the form of representation in higher judiciary, the collegium of SC judges who decide appointments to higher judiciary can help by relaxing the criteria in such cases. 

"Those who have strived to work hard despite facing hardship, we can give some concession," he said. 

Justice Sathasivam explained that the relaxation could be in the form of lowering the criteria adopted for other candidates, which included consideration of their gross annual income and the rate of case disposal in the last three years. 

There has been a dearth of women Judges in the Supreme Court, it has had just five of them, two sitting women judges — Justices Gyan Sudha Mishra and Ranjana P Desai included — in the 63 years of its existence. It was in 1989 that the Supreme Court got its first woman judge in justice Fathima Beevi. Her appointment was followed by Sujata V Manohar and Ruma Pal. 

India got her first dalit CJI in K G Balalkrishnan in 2007 but selection of judges from backward classes had been rather infrequent. 

Justice Sathasivam spoke strongly against the political affiliations influencing the court judges must eschew political connections and leanings. "They should not be politically linked," Justice Sathasivam said of those aspiring to be judges. 

Justice Sathasivam will take oath as CJI on July 19 and have a tenure of little over nine months. He said he would write to all chief justices on this issue and seek their views.