Women have been at the forefront of judicial reforms in India. And, often for issues that are simply not populist. Women are known to fight for a cause even if it calls for swimming against the tide. Look at Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj whose fight against the misuse of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code – a controversial anti-dowry law – is legendary to say the least.
She travelled across India, screening ‘Martyrs of Marriage’, her first feature-length documentary, to persuade the authorities to re-write the law. The draconian section 498A was introduced in 1983 after a series of dowry deaths in Delhi and other parts of India. There was a flurry of daily reports of newly-wed brides being torched to death by their husbands and in-laws and the incidents were often passed off as kitchen accidents. Violent protests by female MPs and activists forced Parliament to bring in the law.
Misuse of law
While the law was created with very noble intentions, according to Ms Bhardwaj, it has also taken many lives. Her contention isn’t in isolation as the said Section 498A has acquired the reputation of being the most abused law in the history of Indian jurisprudence, according to her.
Over the years there has been a steady rise in number of divorces in India, disgruntled women emboldened by unscrupulous lawyers regularly misuse the law to harass their husbands and relatives. Why, a judge of the Supreme Court even described its misuse as legal terrorism, warning it was intended to be used as a shield and not as an assassin’s weapon, and the National Commission for Women too expressed concerns over its misuse.
It was following the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape which formed India’s watershed moment of legal reforms for sexual assault victims that Seema Samridhi’s role as an advocate who relentlessly pursued justice for Jyoti Singh for years until the convicts were executed in 2020 came to light. It was Samridhi’s very first case since she joined the case as a legal trainee and took charge of it in 2014 when she became a Supreme Court lawyer.
She said in an interview that it’s a fight for all women in the world adding anyone could be Nirbhaya. And, even after the convicts were hanged then, similar cases continue coming to her.
For gender equality
It was the reading down of IPC Section 377 by the Supreme Court in 2018 that catapulted senior SC advocate Menaka Guruswamy with her partner and lawyer Arundhati Katju to the limelight. Guruswamy’s efforts exposed the inadequacies of a colonial-era law that forbade consensual same-sex intercourse. The reforms brought members of the LGBTIQ+ community the right to a life of greater dignity than before, following the uproar.
Dalit Rights Activist and a Supreme Court lawyer Kiruba Munusamy, a powerful voice across spaces of law, gender and equality, speaking against discrimination in society. Her pursuit of justice and matters she represents lie at the intersection of gender and caste violence and other human rights violations. The founder of Legal Initiative for Equality emphasised on the work that needed to be done: “I have seen many upper-caste liberals who participate in protests or movements which are seen as ‘decent’. They also don’t know how to pass the mic… I, as a Dalit woman, am not invited to Dalit collectives, but Brahmin women are sitting there. How?”
Former Civil Servant and Bombay High Court lawyer Abha Singh has been a defender of justice for women for years as an inspiring figure across causes that ranged from the #MeToo movement, LGBTQIA+ community, menstrual rights, and cyber-harassment of women. Her book ‘Stree – Dasha aur Disha’ consolidates these issues into a written legal key on empowering women in India. She says it’s never too late to feel within yourself that you want to do something different and want to be different and do something for the society. She believes everyone is a change-maker in her own right.
Power to one and all
Abha Singh has been a part of some of the major celebrity cases as well as social cases in India. When Justice Markandey Katju, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Press Council of India wrote to the governor of Maharashtra asking him to pardon Sanjay Dutt for his involvement in the 1993 bomb blasts, she was the first to bring to the notice of the public that he was exerting undue influence and wrote to the governor rebutting his assertions.
Among Abha’s high-profile cases has been Salman Khan hit-and-run case where the Bollywood star was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in 2002. Abha Singh was one of the main people behind the verdict. She had filed a petition alleging the Mumbai police was shielding the actor and delaying investigation in the case.
Her NGO, RannSamar Foundation (named after her father and father-in-law) has adopted a village in Uttar Pradesh to empower girls and women. Here they offer training in computers, vocational skills like tailoring and spoken English courses. They have also organised computer courses in Tally in a Lucknow jail to help convicts join mainstream society and get a job after they complete their sentence.
Through RannSamar, Abha offers free legal assistance advocacy to helpless women and slum dwellers who have been unfairly persecuted by local authorities and builders for land that is rightfully theirs.
And then, there’s Justice BV Nagarathna, the daughter of the former Chief Justice of India ES Venkataramiah, who – if appointments take place according to the seniority turn – might become the first female Chief Justice of India in Sep 2027 and India will finally have a woman at the post.
In the farewell speech that she delivered on Aug 27, she had said that if women get access to the right opportunities, they can achieve their dreams. She urged all of them to seek the opportunities and have faith in themselves. On the first day, she shared the bench with Justice L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose.
Legal luminaries
B V Nagarathna was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2021. She is projected to become the 54th Chief Justice of India on September 25th, 2027 where she will occupy this position for 36 days.
Violet Alva was the first female lawyer to appear before a High Court. The journalist and the first woman to preside over Rajya Sabha, in 1944 Violet Alva started a women’s magazine called Indian Women. She was also the first woman to be elected in 1952 to the Standing Committee of the All India Newspaper Editors Conference. Violet Alva was also actively associated with a range of social organisations such as the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Business and Professional Women’s Association and the International Federation of Women Lawyers.
Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman to practice law in India and the only lawyer to breach the glass ceiling for women in courtrooms across the country. Known for her involvement in many social reform activities, Sorabji played an active role in the Bengal branch of the National Council for Women in India, The Federation of University Women, and the Bengal League of Social Service.
It was in 1907 that she was awarded the Kaiser-I-Hind Gold medal by the Indian government for her extensive social work. Sorabji exerted a major influence on the abolition of Sati and Child marriages and also gave up her practice to work for social reforms entirely in 1929.