Time for woman CJI not very far off: Justice Nariman

Justice Nariman was delivering the 26th Justice Sunanada Bhandare memorial lecture on 'Great Women of History'

Supreme Court Justice R F Nariman on Friday said the country had a woman President and a woman Prime Minister, but unfortunately never a woman Chief Justice, though the time for this would not be very far off.

Delivering the 26th Justice Sunanada Bhandare memorial lecture on "Great Women of History", Justice Nariman said, "In India, we had a woman President. But, unfortunately, given the fact, we had a woman President and a woman Prime Minister, we never had a woman Chief Justice."

"In any event, I hope, given the present dispensation, the time for the first (woman) Chief Justice will not be very far off," he said.

The comments by Justice Nariman come on the heels of remarks made by Chief Justice S A Bobde on Thursday during the hearing on a matter related to judges' appointment that time has come for a woman Chief Justice of India.

Read | High time that a woman became CJI, says S A Bobde

Justice Nariman said that according to the Bible, women are said to have been created from the rib of a man and the Rig Veda says do not expect a lasting friendship with women, 'for they are like hyenas'. He added that in ancient Persian texts too, women are depicted negatively, with taboo attached to menstruation, and in history, there was always a perception that women were lower than men.

"Misogynistic traditions were there for ages," he said.

In his speech, Justice Nariman detailed the role of five remarkable women in history: Cleopatra of ancient Egypt, Pope Joan, Elizabeth I of England, Catherine the Great of Russia and Razia Sultana, as he spoke extempore on their historical significance and emphasised their key achievements.

Speaking on the occasion, former Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan B Lokur said, "Justice Nariman is very versatile in western classical music. He once told me that if he had not been a lawyer, he would have been a music conductor of the Zubin Mehta variety."