#MeToo Movement In India: Need For A Comprehensive Legal And Social Engineering

Be it a spontaneous overflow of suppressed psychological and emotional trauma or a practical manifestation of ‘the theory of contagion’, the ‘#MeToo movement’ has come to stay in India.Bedeviled by a puritan conscience, while legislators, progressive  members of the executive as well as members of the legal fraternity of the country  have made common cause  with the victims  of sexual assaults and harassment  at the hands of their predators, there is a  growing perception  and fear that the...

Criminal Defamation: A Tool Of Oppression To Shut Out Truth

Provisions like criminal defamation enable those with power and privilege to use law as tool of oppression to shut out truthUnion Minister M J Akbar and film actor Alok Nath -who are caught up in the eye of '#MeToo' storm- have filed criminal complaints for defamation against women who have spoke against them. Though at least 15 women(till date) have come out against M J Akbar regarding acts of sexual harassment committed by him abusing his position as superior at work, he has chosen to go...

Understand The Law Relating To Sexual Harassment In India

The #MeToo campaign has highlighted the plight of women and a number of survivors have come forward to share unfortunate incidents of sexual harassment. In this piece, my endeavour is to summarize the law (Both – substantive and procedural) pertaining to this issue. Substantive LawThe substantive law i.e. what will constitute an offence against the body of a woman may be divided into 4 main categories depending upon the place where it is committed – a public place, a workplace, a shared...

Time’s Up To Apply ‘Reasonable Woman’ Test In Sexual Harassment Cases

“A sex-blind ‘reasonable man’ standard tends to be male-biased and tends to systematically ignore the experiences of women.”“Herland” is a 1915 novel which envisions a utopic world comprising only women. Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the novel conveys that women will be able to establish a society free of conflict, domination and exploitation, if liberated from socially constructed gender stereotypes. There are three male characters in the movie who stumble upon this mystic ‘Herland’, to...

The Money Bill Cloud Persists Over The Aadhaar Act

One of the most significant issues before the Supreme Court in the Aadhar case was with regard to the passing of the Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill. While it may seem technical, this determination involved the arterial health of bicameralism, federalism and national integration which flow into the heart of Indian democracy. First the basics, a Money Bill under Article 110 of the Constitution is one which deals only with items referred to in Article 110(1) and has to be so certified by the Speaker...

Can Appellate Court Cancel Suspension Of Sentence On Application By Anyone Apart From Public Prosecutor?

At the pre-conviction stage i.e., during trial, an accused moves a bail petition u/s 439 CrPC before the Sessions Court or the High Court or u/s 437, as the case may be. Once she is convicted post-trial in a non-bailable offence and the sentence awarded is more than 3 years, the accused seeks suspension of the execution of sentence during the pendency of the appeal u/s 389 CrPC. It is, therefore, important to bear in mind that while Section 439 is at the pre-conviction stage, Section 389 is at...

The Sabarimala Judgment – III: Justice Chandrachud And Radical Equality

Justice Indu Malhotra’s dissenting opinion sets up a crucial constitutional question: how do you reconcile the Constitution’s commitment to pluralism – which entails respect for group autonomy – with the claims of equality and non-discrimination, addressed from within those groups? It is this question that is at the heart of Justice Chandrachud’s concurring opinion.Chandrachud J. sets up the issue in the introductory part of his judgment, where he observes that the Indian Constitution is...

NLUD Stands Up Against Sexual Harassment

What’s happening in National Law University, Delhi is unparalleled-- a number of women and men have come out to share their own stories of sexual harassment, and rather than brushing these stories under the carpet, the student body has come out in massive numbers to express their solidarity with the survivors. Despite what knee-jerk responses to this movement would lead you to believe, sexual harassment is not limited to one college campus. Survivors across the board, in all colleges, are...

Women Entry In Sabarimala: Past, Present And Future

The Past 1955-56: TDB Notifications Two notifications, similarly-worded, one dated 21 October 1955 and the other dated 27 November 1956, were issued by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB). “In accordance with the fundamental principle underlying the prathishta (installation) of the venerable, holy and ancient temple of Sabarimala, Ayyappans who had not observed the usual vows as well as women who had attained maturity were not in the habit of entering the above mentioned temple for Darshan...

Supreme Court’s Refusal To Interfere With The Deportation Of Seven Rohingya Refugees Violates International Law

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday refused to stop the deportation of 7 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. While, with the men minutes away from the border, the Bench agreed to hear the interim application in view of the grave urgency, the matter was dismissed. In doing so, the Supreme Court accepted the arguments made by Mr. Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Government, and  agreed that the Rohingya refugees were ‘illegal immigrants’ and that they had “consented” to return to Myanmar. The...

Ayodhya : Impact Of Order Refusing Reference To Constitution Bench In The Main Case

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the Ismail Faruqui case of 1994 observed that ‘a mosque is not essential part of the practice of the religion of Islam and namaz by Muslims can be offered anywhere, even in open’ and secondly Place of birth of Lord Ram was has additional protection of law because that place has ‘special significance’. At the instance of the Muslim parties, the Supreme Court gave a detailed majority judgment rejecting their claim to examine the correctness of these...

Equal Pay For Equal Work To Sexual Autonomy: Read The Significant Judgments Of Supreme Court On Women's Rights

"I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard...we cannot succeed when half of us are held back."[1]―this were the words of Noble Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who rightly pointed towards the indispensability of making every woman in the world self-sufficient as the development of human race would not be possible without it and the Indian judiciary has been prodigiously vibrant in influencing the course of social change by being the voice of women whose...