Women Representation in Legal Profession:

In the twentieth century, men were not only in majority but also in dominance in the legal
profession in India. Even in the US, women had not been admitted into the prestigious law
schools at this time.

As Auerbach pointed out, for women, the unique minority group that actually constitutes a
majority of the population, sex discrimination was still rampant for decades and the elite law
schools had excluded them altogether (cited in Paul, 1991). In England, the Inns of Court also
kept them out until the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act in 1919.
Nevertheless, certain women candidates, both in England and in India, publicly demanded the
opening up of the legal profession (Paul, 1991).

For the first time in India, the pioneer of the movement for entry of women to the legal
profession, Dr Hari Sigh Gaur, moved the following amendment to the resolution adopted by
the Central Legislative Assembly of India to remove the sex disqualification against women.
The purpose was the inclusion on the electoral roll for the elections to the Legislative
Assembly, on 1st February 1922: “And the Government be further pleased to remove the sex
bar held to disqualify women from enrolment as legal practitioners in the courts of this country”
(ibidem).

Dr Singh narrated the short history of this movement before the House. In 1916, Ms Regina
Guha passed her examination of B. L. from the University of Calcutta and applied to
Calcutta High Court for her enrolment as a legal practitioner. The judges met at a special
Bench. Under the Legal Practitioner Act, any person otherwise qualified is eligible to apply for
such an enrolment, and under the General Clauses Act, ‘a person’ is held to include both a man
and a woman. Consequently, there was no legal impediment to the enrolment of a duly qualified
graduate in law at the High Court in Calcutta. However, it was 1916; the Removal of Sex
Disqualification Act was yet to be passed by the Mother of Parliaments, which it did three years
later, in 1919. Their Lordships of the Calcutta High Court observed that it was perfectly true
that both, according to the etymological sense and the context of the Indian Legal
Practitioners Act, the word ‘person’ made a woman eligible for enrolment as a legal
practitioner. However, the judges still said that the thing had never been done and they were
not prepared to make an innovation (Proceedings of the Govt. of the United Provinces in the
Judicial Civil Department, Sep 1922, File no. 104/1922, p. 2). A full Bench decision of the
High Court, delivered on 29th August 1916, refused the enrolment of Regina Guha as a
pleader (Paul, 1991). In 1921, five years later, another lady from Orissa, Ms Sudhansu
Bala Hazra, filed a petition before the Patna High Court. The judges again observed that
there was no legal impediment to the enrolment of Ms Hazra as a legal practitioner, but
in the view of the fact that the Calcutta High Court, in 1916, had held that such an
enrolment was limited and confined only to the persons of the male sex, they could not
make a deviation.

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 The Patna High Court judges took the view that the reference to a ‘person’ in section 6 of the
Legal Practitioner Act of 1879 did not include a ‘female’. But, at the same time, one of the
learned judges of that court opined that it was for the legislature to decide whether women
graduated in law should be made eligible for enrolment.

At about the same time, another woman law graduate, Ms. Cornelia Sorabji, filed an
application before the Allahabad High Court, which had the good sense to allow her to
be enrolled as a duly qualified legal practitioner. Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman to
graduate from the University of Bombay, and the first woman and the first Indian to read for
the BCL in Oxford. She was an Indian Parsee Christian who is seen as India’s first female
barrister although she was never technically called to the English Bar. She studied for a law
degree at Somerville College, Oxford, (1889-93), the first woman to sit the law exams in the
country. Despite standing first in university examinations at the Deccan College, Sorabji was
not eligible for the Government of India scholarship to study in England. She studied in Britain
with the help of funds raised by her British friends the Hobhouses. Sorabji became the first
woman to practice law in India. She worked for many years as a legal advisor to women and
children on matters in provincial courts, and as a ‘Lady Assistant’ to the Court of Wards. She
finally became qualified as a barrister when women were admitted to the profession for the
first time in 1923. Sorabji became a member of Lincoln’s Inn in 1922, having been barred as a
woman when a student. Her career was dedicated to the cause of the ‘purdahnashins’ (secluded
women) in India.

The position, thus, had now become anomalous. While a woman law graduate was duly
enrolled and practicing law in Allahabad in the same manner as a man, women in Calcutta or
Patna still did not have this prerogative (Proceedings of the Govt. of the United Provinces
in the Judicial Civil Department, Sep 1922, File no. 104/1922, p. 3).

A barrister and champion of the cause of women, Dr Hari Singh Gaur, moved that the
government should remove the sex bar, which disqualified women from enrolment as law
practitioners in Indian courts. Assured by Sir William Vincent, the Home Member, that the
Government of India would elicit opinions from the local governments, High Courts, Oudh Bar
Association, general public and professional bodies, Dr Gaur withdrew the amendment (Paul,
1991).

The Allahabad Bar Library forwarded an opinion in this regard that women’s education had
not progressed sufficiently to justify the adoption of the proposal, but the Oudh Bar
Association was in favour of the proposal. It was nothing short of a revolutionary opinion in
favour of women legal practitioners. The first point in the favour of the proposal was the
abstract argument that there was no justification for discrimination between the sexes, that
women had been admitted to the Bar in England and other European countries, and that India
should follow their example. Women had indeed been admitted to the English Bar and no
Indian High Court, in theory, could refuse to allow a lady Barrister to appear before it.

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The practical argument advanced was that lady practitioners would be of great use to
the parda nashin (vein clad) ladies who had the occasion to undertake litigation, especially
in the Court of Wards Matters. However, there was no dearth of arguments against either.

Many asserted that women’s education was not sufficiently advanced to justify the change, and
that the number of ladies who would wish to be enrolled was likely to be so small that the
question had no more than merely academic interest.

Others opposed the proposal on the ground that it was premature, so long as the prevailing
conditions in the society did not change (Proceedings of the Govt. of the United Provinces in
the Judicial Civil Department, Sep. 1922, File no. 104/1922, p. 3).

After assessing these reactions, the Government of India passed the Bill on 21st March 1923,
which became a law on 2nd April 1923, and was enforced across India. As noted earlier, in
1922, the Allahabad High Court readily gave permission to Ms Cornelia Sorabji, a qualified
advocate practicing in Allahabad, to be enrolled as an advocate. Once the ice was broken, the
Government of India was forced to initiate legislation in order to remove any disabilities that
might be attributed to women subsequently seeking enrolment in the legal profession, provided
that they possessed the necessary educational qualifications (Buckee, 1972).

This was followed by a series of women legal professionals being registered at the High Court
of Allahabad. However, the registrations still remained few and far between. For example,
Shyam Kumari Nehru, Leena Clarke and Begum Menakhi Amina Farrukhi were
registered in 1928, 1931 and 1933, respectively. The enthusiasm that the legislators showed
in enabling women to practice law seemed to have been largely superficial. The token
appearance of women practitioners evoked both sentimentality and curiosity in the bar rooms.
The prospects of securing a decent position for women in the profession, which for decades
had been competitive and male dominated, were forbidding indeed (Paul, 1991).

Justice Anna Chandy:

In the early 20th century, women didn’t hold any important positions in public offices. At such
a time, in 1937, Anna Chandy, became the first female judge and the first High Court judge
in India. By doing so, not only did she shatter the glass ceiling, but she also paved the way for
other women to chase their dreams.
Born in 1905, in Trivandrum, Anna was a Syrian Christian. Despite being in a sexist and male-
dominated environment, Anna went against all odds to obtain a law degree. In 1926, she earned
her post-graduation from the Government Law College in Trivandrum. In 1929, she started
practising as a barrister and specialised in criminal law.
While she practised law, she also fought for women’s rights through the Malayali magazine,
Shrimati, which she founded and edited. As a first-generation feminist, she advocated women’s
rights and questioned sexist laws that affected women. She also worked towards encouraging
widow remarriage, criticised wage discrimination based on gender, and fought against
child marriage. Apart from this, in 1930, she also stood in the elections for the representative

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body of the Travancore state (Shree Mulam Popular Assembly). She faced stiff opposition and
a affront campaign abandoned her chances of winning the election. However, Anna persisted
and didn’t give up. In 1931, she campaigned again and won the assembly seat for a tenure of
two years between 1932 and 1934.

In 1937, she was appointed a munsiff in Travancore by Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer, the Dewan
of Travancore. In 1948, she was promoted to the position of District Judge. On February 9,
1959, she was appointed as a female judge to the Kerala High Court, thus becoming the first
woman to be a judge in an Indian High court. She remained in office until April 5th, 1967.
Apart from this, Anna also fought for women’s reservations. Due to her persistence and
unrelenting effort, the statute that prevented women from working in government jobs was
abolished. She also opposed the Travancore law which gave men explicit conjugal rights while
violating women’s consent.

Justice Leila Sheth

Born in Lucknow to an engineer of the railways in British India, Leila Seth joined the Bar in
1959. She was the first woman to top the London Bar exams in 1958. She handled a large
number of Tax matters (Income Tax, Sales Tax, Excise and Customs), Civil, Company and
Criminal cases as also Matrimonial suits and writ petitions. In 1978, she was appointed as the
first woman judge on the Delhi High Court. In 1991, she was appointed the Chief Justice
of Himachal Pradesh and was thus the first woman to become Chief Justice of a state
High Court in India.

Justice Seth also served on the Law Commission of India till 2000 and was responsible for the
amendments to the Hindu Succession Act which gave equal rights to daughters in joint family
property.

Justice Fatima Beevi

Born to Annaveetil Meera Sahib and Khadeeja Beevi on April 30, 1927, at Pathananthitta in
the erstwhile state of Travancore (now Kerala), Fathima studied law at Trivandrum’s Law
College. Despite being only one of the five women students in her class in the first year (a
number that dropped to three by the second year), the hardworking student was already on her
way to making history.
In 1950, Fathima became the first woman to top the Bar Council of India’s exam. The same
year in November, she enrolled as an advocate and started her career in Kerala’s lower
judiciary, much to the displeasure of many people who raised their eyebrows at a head scarfed
woman in the Kollam court.

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Over the next three decades, Fathima served as the Munsiff in the Kerala Subordinate Judicial
Services, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, the District & Sessions Judge and a Judicial Member
of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, before being elevated to the Kerala High Court as a
judge in 1983.

In October 1989, six months after retiring from the Kerala High Court, Fathima was appointed
as a Supreme Court judge in October 1989. For India, it was a watershed moment that paved
the way for women in India to occupy positions in the higher judiciary.
The first Muslim woman Judge to be appointed to any Higher Judiciary, she also earned the
distinction of being the first woman Judge of a Supreme Court of an Asian nation. According
to senior advocate Dushyant Dave, during her illustrious tenure, Justice Beevi was as courteous
as she was balanced, always well prepared with the case history as she sat on the bench.
After retiring in 1992, Beevi served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission.
In 1997, she was appointed as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, an eventful stint that ended in in
2001. Since Beevi’s appointment in 1989, only six more women judges (including Indu
Malhotra) have been appointed to India’s apex court. Furthermore, there have been only two
periods when it has had more than two sitting woman judges at the same time.
“There are many women in the field now, both at the bar and in the bench. However, their
participation is meagre. Their representation is not equal to men. There is a historical reason
also for that… Women took to the field late. It will take time for women to get equal
representation in the judiciary”, Jusice Fathima said.