CJI calls on High Court collegiums to consider female lawyers of Supreme Court for judgeship

CJI Surya Kant urges High Court collegiums to include female advocates from the Supreme Court for judgeship elevation and institutional reforms.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Sunday (March 8, 2026) batted for greater institutional reforms in the judiciary to bring more women into the legal field and said that high court collegiums should consider meritorious women members of the Bar for judgeship as a norm and not as an exception.

Addressing an event, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) underlined that members of the Bar must acknowledge and accept a simple reality: women members are not seeking concessions.

"They are seeking fair and appropriate representation, which has long been due. Only when the profession itself internalises this truth, will the pathway to the Bench become clearer," he said to applause from women lawyers and members of the judiciary at the first national conference of Indian Women in Law on the topic "Half the Nation – Half the Bench Bridge the gap – Balance the Bench.

The CJI requested the High Court collegiums to widen the zone of their consideration and include women advocates from their states who are practising in the Supreme Court for elevation.

CJI Kant said if progress is to be meaningful, it must be institutionalised. The story should not be that one individual secured greater representation, but it should be that the Supreme Court and the high courts across the country consciously embedded fairness into their processes.

"We must all understand that reform of this nature is not an event; it is a continuous process. The cultivation of institutional fairness requires persistence beyond individual tenures and beyond individual personalities. It may not reach full fruition within my term of office, nor within that of my sister or brother judges. That, however, cannot and should not determine the depth of our commitment," he said.