Jayna Kothari
Jayna is a co-founder of CLPR. She is a Senior Advocate and practices in the Supreme Court of India. She graduated from University Law College with a B.A. LL.B degree and read the BCL at Oxford University. Jayna was awarded the Wrangler D.C. Pavate Fellowship in Cambridge University.
Jayna’s research and practice interests include constitutional law, gender and sexuality law, disability rights and discrimination law. She had argued in the Supreme Court in the recent constitutional challenges to Section 377 and adultery which were both decriminalized. She also argued the Independent Thought case in which the Supreme Court recognized child marital rape as a criminal offence. Her book, “The Future of Disability Law in India” was published in 2012 by Oxford University Press.
March 10, 2025
Women in law have seen great progress over the last 100 years in India. The first woman lawyer, Cornelia Sorabji, was entitled to practice in 1924. Since then, the number of women lawyers has increased, several women have been designated Senior Advocates, and there have been many women judges in the lower judiciary. However, there remains a glass ceiling for women in the higher judiciary.
Go to linkJanuary 1, 2025
The judicial appointments made by the Chandrachud-led Collegium become an interesting point of analysis, especially in the context of gender equality. In this piece, we seek to analyse the extent to which he was able to get more women in the higher judiciary. The Supreme Court started publishing all resolutions of the Collegium since October 2017 on the Supreme Court’s website.
Go to linkNovember 1, 2024
When the gender gap in the higher judiciary is raised, the responses often range from there not being enough women lawyers to choose from, that merit cannot be compromised, or that women are not interested.
Go to linkFebruary 18, 2025
On November 28, 2024, CLPR organized a roundtable discussion in Bangalore with women lawyers practising in the Karnataka High Court focusing on women’s equality in the higher judiciary. The event bought together senior advocates, government pleaders and independent lawyers to examine barriers preventing women from attaining leadership positions within judiciary and legal institutions.
Read moreFebruary 5, 2025
The Roundtable was part of CLPR’s ongoing research on the gender gap in the higher judiciary in India. The Roundtable brought together senior women lawyers including women Senior Counsels and other women advocates from the Madras High Court.
Read moreJune 28, 2022
This Pride Month, we are happy to present to you the VI Issue of our Trans Law Quarterly. In the past two years of the pandemic, we witnessed the tireless efforts of LGBTQIA+ activists, policymakers, litigants and judicial officers which resulted in timely court orders and policies safeguarding and advancing the rights of transgender persons. Putting together the quarterly has provided us a chance to reflect on how far we have come and how long the road ahead is.
Read more