The strict dress code for lawyers must change but the strictness on attire should not lead to moral policing of women advocates, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said on Friday.
“The legal profession must shed its colonial underpinnings,” Chandrachud said while addressing the Constitution Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
“In a country like India, where summers include extreme heatwaves as a result of climate change, we must reconsider the strict dress code for lawyers, particularly in summers,” he said.
At the same time, he added, “the strictness on attire should not lead to moral policing of women lawyers.”
The CJI clarified that he was not in favour of the dress code being completely done away with.
“I am just floating the idea of making the dress more compatible with our lives, weather and times,” he said.
The CJI also said that no institution in a constitutional democracy, including the collegium, is perfect and the solution is to work out within the existing system.