Women have fought for place in legal profession, don’t need tokenism: SG Tushar Mehta

New Delhi: Women are superior to men and should not accept reservation-based tokenism, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta said here on Saturday.

Speaking at an event to celebrate women in the legal fraternity, Mehta said discussions about specifying some percentage to be kept for women as judges or as senior advocates “was not an honour”.

"You do not need tokenism. You don't deserve tokenism. You deserve what you deserve," he said.

"If I get something because I am a Gujarati and there are very few Gujaraties in a particular field. It is my insult. It is not my honour if I get something (like this), I must get it if I am competent, and ladies are competent," he said.

Women waged nothing short of a battle to have a place in the legal profession, the solicitor general said at an event organised by the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) and SILF Ladies Group (SLG).

Mehta said women are already ahead of men and have always been at the forefront of things.

"I believe that ladies who want to be equal to men lack ambition. Because you are already ahead of men. Why should you downgrade yourself and attempt to be equal to men? You need not and I say this with utmost seriousness at my command," he said.

Referring to a study conducted in the aviation industry, Mehta said that it showed that women pilots were calmer, better composed, and more mature in dealing with a mechanical crisis in the aircraft or a crisis like hijacking.

"So in whichever way you examine, women have always been at the forefront and they are better human beings," he said.

Mehta said he rejected the notion of measuring women’s success based on statistical studies.

"Statistically, if you go by the powerful leadership of the country, out of all the prime ministers, right from Jawaharlal Nehru, there was only one lady prime minister, Indira Gandhi – but for the Emergency – one was enough.

“One Golda Meir in Israel was enough. One Margaret Thatcher in Britain was enough," he said.

On women in the legal profession, the solicitor general said Cornelia Sorabji fought a legal battle in the Bombay High Court and was the first Indian lady to be enrolled as an advocate in the Indian bar.

"Thereafter, see their (the women's) journey was based solely on their merits, solely on their competence. Ladies have prospered professionally, financially, socially, culturally, politically, in every which way, so much so that the world celebrates Women's Day," he said, adding that they did not need the “reservation-based tokenism”.

The day-long event organised as part of the International Women's Day, also had separate sessions on 'Setbacks and Strides: Journey Ahead', 'Emerging Challenges for Women in Law: Has Gender Lost its Relevance' and 'Court to Board: Women's Participation in Decision Making'.

Other speakers at the event included SILF president Lalit Bhasin.