Madras HC gets its first woman mace-bearer – The Hindu

The Madras High Court has turned out to be an equal opportunity employer in every sense by having appointed women in all positions, beginning from the lowest cadre of Chobdar (mace-bearer) to the highest cadre of Registrar General. The High Court even has a woman driver, deft in handling all kinds of motor vehicles.

Though a couple of women, in the cadre of district judge, had held the post of Registrar General since 2007, before they both got elevated as judges, this is the first time in the history of the High Court that women had been recruited for the position of Chobdar, whose primary job was to carry maces before the judges.

Justice R.N. Manjula, a member of the Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) in the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai, has turned out to be the first judge of the High Court to utilise the services of a woman chobdar who carries a brand new mace which is solid and much heavier than old hollow maces.

While male Chobdars were expected to wear a white shirt and pant with a turban-like red cap that displays the national emblem and a band around their waist, the uniform of the woman chobdar consists of a white salwar kameez with a duppatta though the cap. The waist band remains the same.

The mace carries a significance in the history of the High Court since its presence outside a judge’s chamber indicates his/presence inside the chambers and its absence indicates otherwise. The mace-bearers ensure free passage to the judges when they walk to and fro from their chambers to the court halls.

It was on March 14 last year that the High Court had issued a notification for recruiting 40 Chobdars, 310 Office Assistants and also for stray vacancies in the post of cook, waterman, room boy, watchman, book restorer and library attendant. They were offered Pay Level- I, which was in the band of ₹15,700 to ₹50,000.

The minimum educational qualification prescribed for the posts was a pass in Class VIII and the candidates aged 18-30 (relaxed to 35 years in the case of reserved categories including destitute widows) were selected through conduct of a written examination, followed by a practical and an oral test.

Written examination was conducted to test candidates’ knowledge in current affairs, basic arithmetic abilities, knowledge in house keeping, Tamil language skills and so on. Several graduates applied for the posts and women outnumbered the among the selected candidates, according to court sources.