Chennai: Law Commission Chairman Justice AR Lakshmanan on Thursday said women, despite constituting half of the world`s population and working for nearly two-thirds of the work hours, accounted for a tenth of the world`s income and one per cent of its property.
Delivering a lecture on `Role Of Women In The Bench and The Bar`, as part of Madras High Court`s Sesquicentennial celebrations here, the former Supreme Court Judge pointed out that women constituted just three per cent in the judiciary and their representation in Parliament never exceeded eight percent.
Women advocates should be given a vital role to play in the legal system and this would encourage them to take up cases for the protection of the needy and under privileged, Justice Lakshmanan said.
Referring to boycott of courts, he appealed to advocates not to stay away from the courts for reasons not connected to the administration of justice.
"Frequent boycott of courts by the advocates resulting in immense hardship to the litigant public has been deprecated by the Supreme Court on several occasions," he said.
Madras High Court Chief Justice MY Eqbal said of the 54 judges in the court, seven were women, indicating that the court had the maximum number of women judges in the country. The number should be increased, he said.
President of the Women Lawyers Association, which organised the function, D Prasanna, alleged that the legal profession was male dominated and said "the presence of women judges should be scaled up at all levels of the judiciary."
PTI
