'Fearless, Symbol Of Women Empowerment' : A Look At Justice Hima Kohli's Term

After a tenure of nearly three years, the Supreme Court has bid farewell to one of its three sitting women judges - Justice Hima Kohli.An alumna of Campus Law Centre, Delhi, Justice Kohli obtained her law degree in the year 1984. In the early stages of her career as an Advocate, she worked with three seasoned lawyers, who eventually went on to adorn offices as Delhi High Court judges (Justice Sunanda Bhandare and Justice Vijender Jain) and Chief Justice of India (Justice YK Sabherwal).In over 20 years of practice, Justice Kohli represented the Government of Delhi in several important public interest litigations. She was also a Legal Advisor to the Public Grievances Commission, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India, National Co-operative Development Corporation, private organizations, banks, etc.In December, 2004, she was appointed as Additional Standing Counsel (Civil), GNCTD at the Delhi High Court, and about 1.5 years thereafter, as Additional Judge of the High Court. She finally took oath as a permanent judge in 2007.Justice Kohli continued to remain a Judge at the Delhi High Court until 2021, when she was transferred to the Telangana High Court and earned the distinction of becoming its first woman Chief Justice. Six months later, on 31 August, 2021, she was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court.During the three years of Judgeship at the Supreme Court, Justice Kohli was part of many important matters, like the same-sex marriage case, the Pegasus spyware probe case, the Patanjali contempt case, the GNCTD v. Union of India case, etc. She also acted as Chairperson of the Court's Internal Complaints Committee.In celebration of her contribution to the legal field, let's revisit some of Justice Kohli's noteworthy decisions and opinions.On Gender-Specific Issues♦ Sexual harassment at workplace (Aureliano Fernandes v. State Of Goa And Others)While dealing with the issue of sexual harassment of women at the workplace, Justice Kohli vociferously opined that the salutary objects of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (POSH) Act will remain unfulfilled unless there is strict adherence to its enforcement regime and a proactive approach on part of all state and non-state actors."If the working environment continues to remain hostile, insensitive and unresponsive to the needs of women employees, then the Act will remain an empty formality. If the authorities/managements/employers cannot assure them a safe and secure work place, they will fear stepping out of their homes to make a dignified living and exploit their talent and skills to the hilt", she said.The judge, part of a bench presided by Justice AS Bopanna, authored the judgment, issuing a slew of directions for proper implementation of the POSH Act. This bench also directed the Union Government, State Governments and Union Territories to verify if all the Ministries, Departments, other government bodies had constituted committees where victims of sexual harassment could lodge their complaints.Further, statutory bodies of professionals such as the Bar Council of India, the National Medical Commission, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India were directed to constitute such committees.Interestingly, the rendering of the judgment coincided with the completion of a decade since POSH Act was legislated. Given the serious lapses in the enforcement of the Act over this decade, the Bench underlined that being a victim of sexual harassment brought down self-esteem of a person as well as their emotional, mental and physical health. Despite this, if incidents were going unreported, one of the reasons could be uncertainty about “who to approach under the Act for redressal of grievance”.To ameliorate the malady, it is imperative that victims be educated about the import and working of the Act, the bench said.♦ Legal recognition to same-sex marriage [Supriyo v. Union of India (and connected matters)]Justice Kohli was part of a 5-judge Supreme Court Bench, which refused to grant legal recognition for queer marriages in India saying that it was a matter for the legislature to decide.Dissenting from the view taken by CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Kohli concurred with Justice Ravindra Bhat's opinion that an entitlement to civil union could only be through enacted law. She spoke through Justice Bhat's judgment that the Supreme Court could not ask the State to create a legal status for queer marriages.Further, the judge was in agreement with the distinction created by Justice Bhat between earlier cases on queer rights (where the Court protected queer persons from violence or criminalization based on State's duty to protect citizen's right) and the case at hand. Be that as it may, Justice Kohli agreed with the view that queer couples have a right to relationship. This opinion was however qualified by the observation that there was no unqualified right to marry which could be treated as a...

'Fearless, Symbol Of Women Empowerment' : A Look At Justice Hima Kohli's Term

Debby Jain

She was widely regarded by the members of the Bar as a compassionate and inspiring judge.

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