Lawyer addresses Justice Rekha Palli as ‘sir’. Here's her reply

What is the future if the younger members of the judiciary do not stop discriminating, Delhi high court judge Justice Rekha Palli said.

As Justice Rekha Palli was hearing a case in the Delhi high court on Wednesday, she was constantly referred to as 'sir'. This led to an interesting exchange, as reported by LiveLaw as Justice Rekha Palli objected to the address and said that she is not a sir. "I am not Sir. I hope you can make that out," Justice Rekha Pallis said.

Rekha Palli said it is even worse if the lawyer addressed her as ‘sir’ because of the chair. 

To this, the lawyer apologised and said, "Sorry, it is because of the Chair you are sitting in."

Hearing this, the judge came up with a retort and said the excuse that she was addressed as 'sir' because of the chair is worse as the chair is not for 'sirs' only. "Then that's even worse if after all this time you think that the Chair is for Sirs. If the younger members don't stop differentiating, then what hope do we have for the future?" Justice Palli said.

The gender ratio in India's judiciary system has remained skewed with fewer female judges in Indian courts. In 2021, an organisation of women lawyers filed a PIL seeking the appointment of more women judged in the courts. The PIL said high courts of Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura and Uttarakhand had no single woman judge. The High Courts of Gauhati, Himachal, Jammu & Kashmir; Ladakh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan and Sikkim have only 1 woman Judge.