The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed all principal district judges to constitute a committee of four members, including a woman advocate, to address and inspect issues of lack of security and infrastructure for women lawyers, litigants, and staff in all district courts across Maharashtra.
A Division Bench of acting Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Arif Doctor was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Jan Adalat Centre for Paralegal Services and Legal Aid Society and advocate Madhavi Pardeshi from Pune. The petition mentioned that as on January 1, 2019, Maharashtra had approximately 1,60,000 lawyers, of whom 40,000 were women. However, many court complexes do not have separate clean washrooms, changing rooms, Bar rooms and canteen facilities for women. The plea highlighted the need for a creche facility and feeding rooms to support women lawyers who are young mothers.
Advocate Uday Warunjikar, appearing for the petitioner, raised concern about the security of women litigants and advocates in district bar associations across courts in Maharashtra and urged the court to pass a direction to install CCTVs at the entrance of the Bar rooms.
The Bench directed principal district judges from each district to form a committee of four persons consisting of executive engineer of the Public Works Department, one person from the Revenue department not below the rank of Additional Collector, a woman representative and a senior woman advocate of the local Bar. The court directed that the committee be formed within two weeks and a report be submitted post inspection of the facilities in courts within four weeks.
The PIL plea pointed out that there are 1,500 women lawyers in Pune district court, however, there are only two Bar rooms. It stressed the need to allocate separate parking spaces, lockers, and drinking water facilities for women lawyers.
