Encouraging Diversity

Today, besides integrity, the judiciary faces the classic problem with merit: More often than not Hindu male judges with a certain expertise as lawyers and who have served as judges of high courts can rise to the Supreme Court comparatively easily but one needs to be an exceptional religious minority or a woman to make an impact.

It goes without saying that greater diversity and encouraging and promoting the best from a wider pool of backgrounds would mean an overall better quality of the judiciary and a much-improved justice delivery system.

When the judiciary does not reflect a broadly representative cross-section of Indian society, the public perception would be that there is an implicit bias against religious minorities. While reservation in the judiciary may generate controversy, it nonetheless raises the question: What would it take for such a change to be made or other attempts at dealing with the lack of diversity to fully emerge?