India’s top judge calls for bold quotas and maternity funds to keep women in the legal profession
India’s Chief Justice is done with half-measures. Speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association’s first national conference in Bengaluru, CJI Surya Kant issued a pointed challenge to governments across the country: stop settling for 15–30% and ensure women hold at least half of all empanelled advocate positions.
“Let us not stick to just 30%. That can be a beginning,” he said ,words that landed less like a suggestion and more like a verdict.
But quotas alone, the CJI argued, won’t keep women in the courtroom. He pressed for dedicated financial corpuses to support women lawyers during their early careers, with honourarium-based assistance specifically during maternity leave , acknowledging that professional momentum too often breaks exactly when life demands it most.
Gender equality in law, he made clear, isn’t a courtesy. It’s a constitutional imperative.
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