Law institutes witness close to 50% enrolment of girl students – Times of India

Revealing numbers


Poonam Saxena, president, Consortium of NLUs and vice-chancellor, National Law University (NLU), Jodhpur, confirm that an increasing number of girls are enrolling in BA-LLB and joining the legal profession. “Over the past five years, the enrolment of girl students in comparison to boys at NLU Jodhpur has been around 40-50%,” she adds.

At National Academy for Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad, the number of girl students have at times superseded male candidates. Faizan Mustafa, vice chancellor, NALSAR, says, “Post the initiation of various NLUs, the average ratio of female and male students across law institutes stands at around 50:50.”

Need for reservation

Many Law institutes already have reservation for female candidates, says Mustafa. “At NALSAR, we have 30% reservation for girl students. However, our total student strength is maintaining an almost at par ratio of male and female candidates. Thus, while reservation as a mechanism may be tried but looking at girls’ numbers and performance, it may not be needed.”

Since diversity is being maintained at the level of education, Mustafa feels that the CJI’s worry over gender disparity in the legal stream stems from the low number of female judges in the Supreme Court and High courts. “The average gestation time after Law education to become a judge is between 20-25 years. Since Law was not considered to be a suitable field for girls around two decades ago, the low number of female judges today is not surprising,” he says. However, the situation is bound to change soon, adds Mustafa.

Agreeing, Saxena says, “I never felt the need for reservations for admission to Law courses as NLUs have witnessed close to 50% enrolment of girls, sometimes even more. In fact, at the LLM level, more girls take admission than boys.”

The purpose of reservation in legal education would only be to bring up the talent that otherwise was made a subject to gender biases, says Vivek Narayan Sharma, senior counsel, Government of India. “Even in the reservation, checks and balances need to be invoked to create a balance in the ratio of men against women pursuing the profession. Reservation should be time bound and removed upon achieving 33% representation of women in the judiciary or in 20 years, whichever is earlier.”

Females in Law, judiciary

Sharma says that Law as a career option for girls has grown since the evolution of NLUs. “Increased salaries and job opportunities have enabled female participation in this field. Corporates are focusing on improving gender diversity ratio, which is driving the demand for women lawyers in the corporate sector,” he says.

Female lawyers take lead in litigations involving women facing sexual assault, domestic or matrimonial problems, custody and guardianship issues, or dowry harassment, adds Saxena. “Women open up easily with a female lawyer. However, that does not mean that the practice of a woman lawyer is confined only to these areas. Women lawyers are equally successful in the corporate and IPR sector, Constitutional matters, and Criminal law.”

A reason behind the low number of female judges may be their disinterest in the profession. “Financially, a judge may earn lesser than an advocate running his/her independent practice. Also, generally a professional who is considered for judgeship is in the age-group of 53-55 years. Since retirement age is set at 62 years, this leaves many judges with a short service span. To attract more females to give their consent to becoming a judge, efforts can be made in the form of lowering the age bar to becoming a judge,” says Mustafa.