Justice Sujata Manohar was the second woman judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court. She became a Supreme Court judge in 1994 and spent five years at the apex court, before retiring in 1999.

In this interview with Bar & Bench, Justice Manohar speaks about her early years as a litigating lawyer and her time as the first woman judge of the Bombay High Court. She also speaks about judges appointing judges and the current state of the judiciary.

Your father, Kantilal Thakoredas Desai was a renowned lawyer and retired as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.

I come from a family of doctors and lawyers. Our family had a tradition that one son would be a doctor and one son would be a lawyer. We are three sisters, so it was decided that one girl would become a doctor and one would become a lawyer. I was the elder one and I chose law. My sister chose medicine. So, it was sort of automatically decided.

You went on to study at Oxford University.

Yes, I first graduated from Bombay University and then I went to Oxford. I did PPE (Philosophy, Politics, Economics) because my father said that a foreign-based education is much better than doing just law. So I did my PPE and then [was called to the Bar] at Lincoln’s Inn. I returned to India and started practicing at the Bombay High Court.

Nobody took women seriously in those days. I joined the Bar in 1958.

Were there other women litigating at that time?

There were 2 or 3 other woman lawyers but nobody was doing too well. People did not take women very seriously then. They thought women just come here to spend time till they get married. So you would not get that initial support which a junior lawyer requires. And unless you are seen practicing, you don’t get work. It is a vicious circle.

I got a lot of drafting work. In those days, it was a very serious matter if you had to ask for amendment of your pleadings. It was a black mark on the draftsman. So, we had to be careful in drafting pleadings.

Initially, I worked with Mr. KK Desai. Then after he became a High Court judge, I joined Mr. MR Modi. Mostly I was on my own. I practised on the original side.

Did it help to have your father in the same profession?

No, it didn’t help at all because by the time I joined the Bar, he had become a judge and then he went to Gujarat, so I hardly had any time with him. He did advise me on how to draft a pleading. He also gave me very impractical advice that you must draft your pleading by hand. He said that [made the pleadings] short and to the point.

In those days you never wrote down correspondence and things like that. Pleadings were about 6 or 7 pages at the most. Just the essential facts, your cause of action and your prayers.

You did a lot of public interest and pro bono work.

There were several women’s organisations in Bombay. I was in the Maharashtra State Women Council. I was Chairperson of its parliamentary committee and edited the news bulletin and so on.

A lot of women came in for legal advice. In those days, there was no government legal aid, so I did a lot of work for them. I got a fair idea of what problems women face. Most of them don’t even know what their husbands earn to ask for maintenance, and they require guidance.

Just see how unfairly separate laws work for women. For example, a Christian woman came to me and said that her Muslim neighbour recently managed to get a divorce. The Christian lady wanted a divorce as her husband ill-treated her. I told her that under the Indian Divorce Act, you have to prove something more than cruelty; you have to prove adultery or something. She asked if her neighbour can get it, why can’t she? How do you explain a thing like that?

We started an Indian Federation of Women Lawyers whose first  President was Mithan Jamshed Lam, the first woman to enroll at the Bombay High Court. She was also the first woman Sheriff of Bombay. When she retired, I became the president and we had a legal aid programme. That was a very satisfying way to help people.

You became a judge of the Bombay High Court in 1978.

At that time, people were not willing to accept judgeship. The salary was 3,500 rupees. So I guess ultimately they had to ask me. I said ok, I don’t mind. I told them during my acceptance speech that I can only accept judgeship because I have a working husband. It was that bad in those days. You got nothing. You had to come in your own car. You were not given any driver. You did not have a telephone in your chambers. Nothing.