Women judges of Kerala can now wear trendy outfits like long skirts, churidar and full-sleeve shirts and pants to court halls and need not stick to the traditional attire — the saree and blouse combo, anymore.
The Kerala High Court last week cleared a request from women judges allowing them to wear modern dresses in courts. An official circular permitting the judges to choose salwar kameez, churidar, long skirts, shirts and pants and full-sleeve blouses and sarees as the official dress will be issued on October 9, thus modifying their more than half a century-old dress code. However, the women will not have the freedom to choose the colour of the dress and will have to stick to the black and white colour combination, to appear formally dressed during the court proceedings.
The existing dress code for Kerala judges, which didn’t have any mention of saree, had insisted that women shall wear “regional dress of subdued colour, white stiff or soft collar bands with a Barrister’s or Bachelor of Law’s gown. Men shall wear black open-collar coats, white shirts, and white stiff or soft-collar bands with a Barrister’s or Bachelor of Law’s gown” in courts.
