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The book Justice for Women Concerns and Expressions will
be appreciated by readers who are interested in women’s
issues, gender studies and lawyers who see women’s issues as
human rights issues. However, it should also be read by lawyers
and judges of the lower courts who can make a difference by
being more sensitive and proactive while responding to crimes
against women.
Adarsh Sein Anand,
former Chief Justice of India, gave many path-breaking
judgements to further the cause of gender justice. By compiling
some of his speeches and judgements, his daughter Munisha Anand
has made them available to many readers who are interested in
women’s issues. While reading the landmark judgements of the
former Chief Justice one can not help marvelling at the manner
in which an aware and sensitive judge can make justice available
to the people who would otherwise be denied access to it.
As Justice Anand
points out that the fight of women for their rights is not a
fight "against men." It is a fight against unjustified
traditions and the male-created Lakshmana rekha which
women are not supposed to cross! He advocates CAMA—Change of
attitude, motivation and awareness of the society — as the
essence of ensuring gender justice in all spheres.
He is also of the
view that sensitisation of judges through special courses is
necessary and even desirable. It is a fact that a socially
sensitised judge is a better statutory armour in cases of crime
against women than long clauses of penal provisions containing
complex exceptions and provisos.
The message of
international instruments such as the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979
(CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration which directs all State
parties to take appropriate measures to prevent discrimination
of all forms against women besides taking steps to protect the
honour and dignity of women is loud and clear. The international
covenant on economic, social and cultural rights contains
several provisions that are particularly important for women.
While discussing Constitutional requirements, court and counsel
must not forget the core principles embodied in these
international conventions and instruments as far as possible.
That is what ought to be but what is a different story
altogether as reading through the landmark judgements proves.
The loopholes in the law are twisted to reinforce gender-biased
attitudes and the criminals get off the hook easily, especially
in the trial courts.
Part one of the
book deals with articles and speeches. Well-argued, these
speeches possess both form and content and even though the style
is formally elegant, it does justice to the seriousness of the
issues involved. Especially notable is the chapter titled
Relevance of equality—Education for judges.
Part two deals
with landmark judgements that reveal not only Justice Anand’s
gender sensitivity but also his pioneering spirit that spurs him
on to make the laws more dynamic in spirit, cutting the
technical legal jargon and hair-splitting.
For example, in
the Kundula Bala Subrahmanyam vs State of Andhra Pradesh,
dealing with a case of bride-burning, he maintains that the
older women in the families are the worst perpetrators of crimes
and asks men not to be mute spectators. The learned judge uses
International covenants and conventions and treaties to make his
point and is of the view that domestic courts should give due
regard to international conventions, as in the case of the
Apparel Export Council versus A.K Chopra which dealt with a case
of sexual harassment at the workplace.
There has been a
lot of criticism of the treatment of victims of sexual assault
in the court during their cross examination. Some defence
counsel adopt the strategy of continual questioning to test her
story for inconsistencies to attempt to twist the interpretation
of events and make them appear inconsistent with her
allegations.
It is an irony
that while we are celebrating women’s rights in all spheres,
we show little or no concern for her honour. It is a sad
reflection on the attitude of indifference of the society
towards violation of human dignity of the victims of sex crimes.
We must remember that a rapist not only violates the victim’s
privacy and personal integrity, but inevitably causes serious
psychological as well as physical harm in the process.
In his landmark
judgement in the Gurmit Singh vs State of Punjab case, Justice
Anand describes how rape is not merely a physical assault but is
often destructive of the whole personality of the victim. A
murderer destroys the physical body of his victim, a rapist
degrades the very soul of the helpless female. Stigmas attached
to the girl’s character have the potential of discouraging an
even otherwise reluctant victim of sexual assault to bring forth
a complaint against criminals. The victim of the crime is
discouraged, the criminal encouraged and crime gets rewarded. It
is the accused and not the victim of the sex crime who is on
trial. The courts, therefore, shoulder a great responsibility
while trying an accused on charges of rape. They must deal with
such cases with utmost sensitivity.
What mars a
commendable effort is the lack of editing and pruning to remove
an overlap of information and quotations. Example: On page 8 the
quote from Status of Women in India—A depressing scenario is
repeated on page 28.
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IN
a 1980 UN Report, it was reported that women constitute half the
world’s population, perform nearly two-thirds of its work, receive
one-tenth of the world’s income and less than one-hundredth of the
world’s property. Women also comprise 66 per cent of the world’s
illiterate and 70 per cent of the world’s poor. In such a context
justice for women seems like a mirage that eludes those hapless ones
who are at the receiving end of discriminatory practices and
socio-cultural biases that are more sharp in a conservative,
tradition-bound society such as ours.
