Pick your battles. Don't fight with all, Delhi High Court judge Justice Prathiba M Singh told women lawyers.
Highlights
- Delhi HC judge asks women lawyers to not take any sympathy as it will stereotype you
- Justice Singh also advised the women lawyers to keep a driver so as to help them work in the car
- Justice Singh was speaking at felicitation programme by ‘Women in Law and Litigation’
Delhi High Court judge Justice Prathiba M Singh gave an advice to women lawyers inorder to prevent the 'court from stereotyping them'. "Be competent, give up Bollywood movies and parlour time. Dedicate to law. Pick your battles. Don't fight with all," Justice Prathiba M Singh said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the felicitation organised by ‘Women in Law and Litigation’ for Supreme Court judge, Justice Hima Kohli, Justice Singh urged women lawyers to devote their time and attention to law practice, by cutting time spent on going to parlours or watching movies.
Justice Singh urged the female lawyers to ditch taking sympathy from the court in the name of the family as it leads to court stereotyping them and instead devise ways to achieve a perfect work-life balance.
ALSO READ: Women not having toilets inside courts, only 11% representation: What CJI Ramana said at a function
“Don’t seek sympathy from the court or from lawyers on the other side or even your clerk. You don’t have to tell them that my child is unwell, I have to pick up my daughter from school. Please don’t do that... That stereotypes you,” she said.
Justice Singh also advised the women lawyers to keep a driver so as to help them work in the car. “Always keep a domestic help, a driver. Don’t think that ‘I have to sacrifice’. Sacrificial mentality is not required for women. You just have to fight it. Always keep a driver because then you can work in the car,” she asserted.
She further encouraged the female lawyers to focus on specializing in the field of law, rather than a sacrificing attitude and face all the stress with a smile: “Your child may feel ‘mummy ghar pe nahi hoti (mummy is not at home)’ but one day, he/she will be proud that you are a lawyer.”
Speaking at the same programme, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana added women in legal profession face barriers such as continued prevalence of certain attitudes about their role in society and bias.
Also Read I Delhi court grants bail to Ex-Navy officials in Submarines leak case
