All-Women Bench — History Repeated

The Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud repeated history by ordering an all-women bench’s constitution to hear transfer petitions majorly involving matrimonial disputes and bail matters. The step taken is something that needs to be a permanent affair not only in the Supreme Court but all the courts across the country with a special focus on the lower courts which usually get to hear the matters involving women. While the law is the same for every citizen of the country, the cases which have the women at centre focus would need a women judge to understand the complexities in the best possible way without losing objectivity.

This time the bench will comprise Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Bela M. Trivedi it also needs to be noted here that the constitution of such a dedicated bench in the Supreme Court has happened twice in the past, first it happened in the year 2013, which had Justice Gyan Sudha Misran and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, and then, in the year 2018, which had Justice R Banumati and Justice Indira Banerjee. But one would ask why it is so rare for the Supreme Court to put such benches in place and why it can’t be a permanent affair in the judicial setup.

More than the apex court, the lower courts and the High Courts in the states across the country are in dire need of having such benches in place. While the constitution of all-women benches is not mandatory under law, despite that, going ahead with such a measure would be the ultimate creativity and effective management by the Chief Justice of India who might want to give special treatment to the cases which involve women and are lying before the courts for years without any progress. There might be constraints preventing the execution of such measures, but there is a need for analysing the impacts of having all-women benches in the courts for a stronger case.

There sure is a dearth of women judges in the country—even in the Supreme Court, there are just 3 women justices, of which one is set to become the Chief Justice in 2027—but there is a need for trying to find out something to work at least in the lower courts which not only get a huge number of cases involving women but could also prove instrumental in the deliverance of justice to the womenfolk.

Having an all-women bench in the courts across the country has the potential of making the women feel empowered while the same can persuade them further to fight for their rights, because, they would know that there would be someone, from their gender, who might empathise with them, understand the gravity of the violation of rights and push the executive for the needful in the cases where there is a need. Justice is indeed gender-neutral, but having women hear the grievances of women will indeed make a difference—a difference that could go a long way.