A lawyer can be aggressive in court but she should not disrespect the judge, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising said on Saturday .Jaising said that she has no qualms in admitting that she is aggressive in a court of law while making arguments, but added that such aggression should be tempered with respect. "I have been accused of being aggressive, I accept the charge of being aggressive in court without demurrer. I have no inhibitions about being aggressive in a court of law. Aggression, with respect. Please remember that. You can be aggressive in representing a client, but you cannot be disrespectful to a judge in a court of law," Jaising said.She explained that such aggression is only intended to open the mind of the court.Jaising was speaking as part of a panel discussion on the topic 'Do women need empowerment?' at an event organised by the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Ladies Group to mark Lady Lawyers Day on August 5..Jaising said that she learnt that there is nothing wrong with aggression after watching Senior Advocate Fali Nariman."In the early years of my career, I have watched him (Nariman) address the court with great admiration. I have learnt from him, that there is nothing wrong with aggression. He is a successful lawyer. He will not compromise on a point which he wishes to make. We sometimes need to be aggressive in order to put a point of view across," Jaising said. Nariman was also present at the event through virtual mode and rendered a special address at the inaugural session..The panel was moderated by Shweta Bharti, Senior Partner at Hammurabi & Solomon Partners who kickstarted the discussion by questioning whether women need empowerment or if they were already empowered. “Every generation is taking steps for the next generation, paving way for the next generation … but is it enough? Do women need empowerment or are they already empowered?” Bharti remarked. .Shilpa Bhasin Mehra, Head of Legal at AMEA SVITZER, observed that the fact that a panel discussion is taking place on the theme of women empowerment means that there is still scope for improvement. "I feel, just the fact that we are having a panel on women empowerment, means there is some doubt, there is some dilemma, there’s a debate and lots of work to be done on this topic. We don’t have a debate about whether walking is good or not – because that is a given," she pointed out. .Vani Mehta, General Counsel (South Asia) at GE spoke on the theme of why the number of women in senior level posts in the corporate world still continues to remain low. “Sometimes really small challenges bring down a woman’s enthusiasm, motivation to handle it all. Woman have often been said to be multi taskers. In our quest to do multi-tasking, we often do not choose our battles very wisely. We try to do it all. We need to give up the mundane jobs. We need to find the right support system to take it up. We need to strike a balance. One of the central pillars to strike that balance is to have a very gender neutral family,” she said. .Amita Katragadda, Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas noted that the rising strength of women at law firms in India was encouraging. “Something about law firms in India allows for 40% to be women. That means, there must be something going right. It’s different from the litigating bar. The international average, by the way, is 15%. But in India, you see law firms have 40% women. There is something that is going on over there that we must celebrate. What it does tell us is that it’s possible… There will be a point that we say that 50% judges are women. It’s just a matter of time,” she said. She added that the key to bringing more women to the workforce is to build institutional mechanisms that "do not disempower women.""It’s about taking away the inhibitions, or the manner in which somebody is being dealt with, correcting our perception that 'aggression in a woman is bad whereas aggression in a man is something to celebrate.' All of those are things that go into disempowering a woman," she said. .Pallavi Saluja, Editor at Bar & Bench, highlighted the abysmal proportion of women among judges and senior advocates. In the history of the Supreme Court, only 11 women judges have been appointed out of around 268 judges, she pointed out. "Right now we have 3 women judges in Supreme Court and we are yet to get our first woman Chief Justice of India which is going to happen in 2027, for 36 days. Out 788 judges, we have only 107 women judges – that makes it 13%. Five High Courts – Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura and Uttarakhand – they don’t have any woman on their bench. Coming to Senior Advocates, India has a total of 3,149 senior advocates. Out of this, a mere 3.4% - only 106 woman - are senior advocates," she further noted. .Monica Behura, Editor of Economic Times Legal spoke of unfair treatment meted out to women at workplace, particularly if they become mothers and need maternity leave. "Women should be given equal opportunities as men," she emphasised. .Delhi High Court judge, Justice Prathiba M Singh was the Chief Guest at the event. In her inaugural speech, she spoke of how women have to go above and beyond to prove themselves in the legal profession. In a special address, Senior Advocate Fali Nariman commented that it was the deprecating attitude of men that oppresses women far more than any law.
A lawyer can be aggressive in court but she should not disrespect the judge, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising said on Saturday .Jaising said that she has no qualms in admitting that she is aggressive in a court of law while making arguments, but added that such aggression should be tempered with respect. "I have been accused of being aggressive, I accept the charge of being aggressive in court without demurrer. I have no inhibitions about being aggressive in a court of law. Aggression, with respect. Please remember that. You can be aggressive in representing a client, but you cannot be disrespectful to a judge in a court of law," Jaising said.She explained that such aggression is only intended to open the mind of the court.Jaising was speaking as part of a panel discussion on the topic 'Do women need empowerment?' at an event organised by the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Ladies Group to mark Lady Lawyers Day on August 5..Jaising said that she learnt that there is nothing wrong with aggression after watching Senior Advocate Fali Nariman."In the early years of my career, I have watched him (Nariman) address the court with great admiration. I have learnt from him, that there is nothing wrong with aggression. He is a successful lawyer. He will not compromise on a point which he wishes to make. We sometimes need to be aggressive in order to put a point of view across," Jaising said. Nariman was also present at the event through virtual mode and rendered a special address at the inaugural session..The panel was moderated by Shweta Bharti, Senior Partner at Hammurabi & Solomon Partners who kickstarted the discussion by questioning whether women need empowerment or if they were already empowered. “Every generation is taking steps for the next generation, paving way for the next generation … but is it enough? Do women need empowerment or are they already empowered?” Bharti remarked. .Shilpa Bhasin Mehra, Head of Legal at AMEA SVITZER, observed that the fact that a panel discussion is taking place on the theme of women empowerment means that there is still scope for improvement. "I feel, just the fact that we are having a panel on women empowerment, means there is some doubt, there is some dilemma, there’s a debate and lots of work to be done on this topic. We don’t have a debate about whether walking is good or not – because that is a given," she pointed out. .Vani Mehta, General Counsel (South Asia) at GE spoke on the theme of why the number of women in senior level posts in the corporate world still continues to remain low. “Sometimes really small challenges bring down a woman’s enthusiasm, motivation to handle it all. Woman have often been said to be multi taskers. In our quest to do multi-tasking, we often do not choose our battles very wisely. We try to do it all. We need to give up the mundane jobs. We need to find the right support system to take it up. We need to strike a balance. One of the central pillars to strike that balance is to have a very gender neutral family,” she said. .Amita Katragadda, Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas noted that the rising strength of women at law firms in India was encouraging. “Something about law firms in India allows for 40% to be women. That means, there must be something going right. It’s different from the litigating bar. The international average, by the way, is 15%. But in India, you see law firms have 40% women. There is something that is going on over there that we must celebrate. What it does tell us is that it’s possible… There will be a point that we say that 50% judges are women. It’s just a matter of time,” she said. She added that the key to bringing more women to the workforce is to build institutional mechanisms that "do not disempower women.""It’s about taking away the inhibitions, or the manner in which somebody is being dealt with, correcting our perception that 'aggression in a woman is bad whereas aggression in a man is something to celebrate.' All of those are things that go into disempowering a woman," she said. .Pallavi Saluja, Editor at Bar & Bench, highlighted the abysmal proportion of women among judges and senior advocates. In the history of the Supreme Court, only 11 women judges have been appointed out of around 268 judges, she pointed out. "Right now we have 3 women judges in Supreme Court and we are yet to get our first woman Chief Justice of India which is going to happen in 2027, for 36 days. Out 788 judges, we have only 107 women judges – that makes it 13%. Five High Courts – Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura and Uttarakhand – they don’t have any woman on their bench. Coming to Senior Advocates, India has a total of 3,149 senior advocates. Out of this, a mere 3.4% - only 106 woman - are senior advocates," she further noted. .Monica Behura, Editor of Economic Times Legal spoke of unfair treatment meted out to women at workplace, particularly if they become mothers and need maternity leave. "Women should be given equal opportunities as men," she emphasised. .Delhi High Court judge, Justice Prathiba M Singh was the Chief Guest at the event. In her inaugural speech, she spoke of how women have to go above and beyond to prove themselves in the legal profession. In a special address, Senior Advocate Fali Nariman commented that it was the deprecating attitude of men that oppresses women far more than any law.
