Structure of legal profession : Not accommodative of women, says CJI

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Saturday said the structure of legal profession is "feudal, patriarchal and not accommodating of women" and there is a need to have a democratised and merit-based process for entry of more women and marginalised sections of society.

Justice Chandrachud, who took charge as CJI on Wednesday, said there are numerous challenges before the judiciary and first among them is of expectation as every social and legal matter and a large number of political issues come within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. "One thing which we need to understand is that the judiciary has a feeding pool. The feeding pool which determines who enters the judiciary is largely dependent on the structure of the legal profession. The structure of the legal profession even today across India is feudal, patriarchal and not accommodating of women,'' the CJI, who is known for expressing candid views, said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

''So when we talk of having more women in the judiciary, it's equally necessary for us to lay building blocks for the future by creating access to women now. The first step is entering the chambers of senior lawyers which is an old boys club," he said.

"How do you gain access to chambers by tapping your connections? Until we have a democratised and merit-based access to the entry point in the legal profession we will not have more women and will not have more people belonging to marginalised sections," he said.

He said the live streaming of court proceedings was a new experiment that gave an insight into what technology can do to transform the legal system and said proceedings of high courts and district judiciary should also be live streamed.