Delays in getting an outcome in a case are more likely to impact female lawyers than male lawyers, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud observed on Friday.
Longer court battles would be onerous on litigants and that would impact the clientele of female lawyers more than male lawyers, he added.
“The inability to get a timely outcome may impact the practice of a male as well as female lawyer. But everything else being equal, in a society that associates intellect and caliber with gender, the impact of delay will be greater for a woman lawyer, than a male lawyer. She is not only fighting her immediate opponent in court, who perhaps benefits from the delay, but is also combating years of gendered perceptions about her innate ability to be a lawyer,” CJI Chandrachud explained.
He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the new office premises of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Mumbai.
In his address, the CJI opined that there are several barriers to justice, including social, physical and systemic barriers. However, he noted that good infrastructure is a way to reduce these barriers and ensure that legal disputes are heard effectively and disposed of quickly.
He pointed out that more lawyers were now voluntarily working in tribunals. Therefore, it was crucial for the tribunals and courts to have infrastructure that addressed the demands of the lawyers and the court staff working in such buildings, the CJI said.
“Our infrastructural advances must be guided by the objective of accommodating people with diverse needs from diverse segments of our society. Well-maintained infrastructure can enhance the public’s confidence in the State’s ability to meet their legal needs but also account for their comfort as they navigate through the complexities of the daunting legal journey,” the CJI added.
CJI Chandrachud also cautioned against making virtual courts the sole medium of access to justice, especially when the litigant is a physically disabled person or a senior citizen.
“We must remember that technology can never become a condition in accessing justice (or) the sole medium to access courts. Physical access to courts must never be understated in its importance and must be constantly improved. The litigant alone must have a choice of how they want to access courts. Our function is to give them an effective choice between a fully functional and accessible physical court complex and an equally efficient technology court,” Justice Chandrachud explained.
The CJI ended his speech by highlighting the good fortune of judges and lawyers in Maharashtra, which he said has a culture of the government not interfering with judicial work.
“In States like Maharashtra, we do not realise the importance of the work which we as judges do in these institutions of justice. That is the beauty of this State. We should not ignore the favourable conditions in which we work as opposed to the rest of the country. There is also a culture of governance in the country, where the governments successfully have left the judiciary alone. They do not tinker with the work the judiciary does. They accept outcomes which are favourable (or) not favourable. Because that is the culture of Maharashtra,” CJI Chandrachud observed.
