"She" Is Not a Courtroom Title

Justice B.V. Nagarathna flags how women lawyers are called "she" instead of "learned counsel" at a landmark SCBA panel on women empowerment in law. Full analysis. EXCERPT / SOCIAL SHARE SNIPPET: At the SCBA panel on "Women Empowerment in Law," Justice Nagarathna challenged the legal profession to stop reducing women advocates to gendered pronouns and start treating them as equal peers. Here is what she said and why it matters. "She" Is Not a Courtroom Title: Justice B.V. Nagarathna Calls Out Gendered Language Against Women Advocates India's likely first woman Chief Justice confronts a quiet but corrosive bias — women lawyers stripped of the professional address their male peers take for granted. On Wednesday, December 3, 2025, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) hosted a panel discussion titled "WE (Women Empowerment in Law): Strength, Struggle & Success." The event brought together some of the most influential voices in India's legal fraternity to examine the lived realities of women practitioners — from courtroom discrimination to career-ending institutional gaps. Among the speakers, it was Justice B.V. Nagarathna of the Supreme Court of India whose remarks drew the sharpest attention, not because they revealed something new, but because they named something that the profession has quietly tolerated for decades. When "She" Replaces "Learned Counsel" Justice Nagarathna drew from her own experience as a practising advocate in trial courts and the Karnataka High Court to make a pointed observation. Women advocates, she said, are routinely referred to as simply "she" in courtrooms, while their male counterparts enjoy the professional courtesy of being addressed as "learned counsel." The distinction may seem linguistic, but Justice Nagarathna argued that it reflects a deeper attitudinal problem — one where women are seen first through the lens of gender and only secondarily as legal professionals. This is not merely a matter of etiquette. In the adversarial setting of an Indian courtroom, how an advocate is addressed shapes how their arguments are received — by the bench, by opposing counsel, and by the litigants watching from the gallery. When a woman advocate is referred to as "she" while the man across the aisle is "learned counsel," a hierarchy is established before a single legal submission is made. Equality Must Be Practised, Not Just Preached Justice Nagarathna went further than identifying the problem. She squarely placed the responsibility for change on male advocates and lawyers, emphasising that they must treat women lawyers as their equals and as their peers. The word "peer" is significant. It does not ask for chivalry or protection. It asks for professional equivalence — the same presumption of competence, the same courtesy of address, and the same access to opportunities that male advocates have historically enjoyed without question. Her remarks carry particular weight given her personal trajectory. Justice Nagarathna began her legal practice in Bengaluru in 1987, building a career without the advantage of an established professional network or family connections in the city. She went on to become a permanent judge of the Karnataka High Court in 2010 and was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2021. She is widely expected to become India's first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027 — a milestone that would arrive nearly seven decades after the establishment of the Supreme Court. The Role of Family and Institutional Support During the same SCBA panel, Justice Nagarathna also spoke about a reality that rarely features in formal discussions about gender parity in law — the role of the family. She noted that when it comes to male advocates, the cooperation of the family is simply assumed. The domestic sphere is managed, and the male advocate is free to devote himself entirely to practice. For women advocates, the equation is reversed. Family support is not a given; it must be negotiated, earned, and maintained, often at the cost of career momentum. Justice Nagarathna has spoken about this dynamic on previous occasions as well. In a conversation with the Supreme Court Observer, she remarked that women "get into the bar but very few get up in the bar," pointing to the critical juncture that arrives after marriage and childbirth when many women advocates leave the profession and never return. She has consistently called for practical solutions — creches in court complexes, flexible working arrangements from senior advocates, and the normalisation of work-from-home options for women practitioners with young children. Sisterhood Over Scarcity Justice Nagarathna's SCBA address also connects to a broader theme she has championed throughout 2025: the idea that women in law must choose solidarity over competition. At the launch of Senior Advocate Indira Jaising's book "The Constitution is My Home," she had earlier observed that men in the legal profession have long benefited from informal networks of brotherhood — mentorship circles, social connections, and professional camaraderie that ease the path to success. Women, by contrast, have historically entered the profession without such structures. "The legal profession can be intensely competitive," Justice Nagarathna noted at that event, "but the most enduring progress has come when women refused isolation and chose solidarity over scarcity." Her call is not just aspirational. She has advocated concrete steps, including mentorship programmes where experienced women lawyers guide younger advocates through the structural challenges of sustaining a legal career. The Larger Picture: Representation Still Falls Short Justice Nagarathna's remarks at the SCBA panel do not exist in isolation. They form part of a sustained campaign she has waged from the bench for systemic reform. At a seminar organised by the University of Mumbai in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research earlier in 2025, she called for at least 30 percent reservation for women advocates on government legal panels, in public sector units, and among law officers representing the state and central governments. She questioned why competent women advocates under 45 were rarely elevated to High Courts, despite male advocates of similar age and experience routinely securing such appointments. The statistics remain sobering. Despite women making up nearly half the graduates of India's top law schools, their representation thins dramatically at the senior levels of practice and on the bench. Women currently occupy just 14 percent of Lok Sabha seats, 15 percent in the Rajya Sabha, and fewer than 7 percent of ministerial positions. The 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies — enacted into law in 2023 — remains unimplemented, pending a new census and delimitation exercise expected around 2027. Why This Matters Beyond the Courtroom When a sitting Supreme Court judge — and the country's likely next Chief Justice — calls out something as seemingly small as how women are addressed during hearings, it sends a signal that reverberates beyond the legal profession. Language is the first instrument of power in any institution. If the courtroom, which is the ultimate arena of rights and justice, cannot extend basic professional respect to women who appear before it, it raises uncomfortable questions about the institution's capacity to deliver substantive justice to women who appear before it as litigants. Justice Nagarathna's message at the SCBA panel was ultimately a simple one, but it is a message that the Indian legal profession has been reluctant to hear: dignity begins with how you address the person standing across from you. And until every woman advocate is "learned counsel" before she is "she," the profession's claim to equality remains incomplete.