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Think India Event, as held today, brought in some great perspective on Gender Justice and Equality by some exceptional minds of the legal fraternity.

The event was organised virtually and saw the appearances of ASG Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, Senior Advocate(s) Ms. Pramila Nesargi, Ms. Geeta Luthra and Ms. Sonia Mathur.

It was divided into two sessions; Session 1: Uniform Parameters of Inheritance and Succession and Session 2: Uniform Parameters of Divorce, Maintenance and Alimony.

To captivate the essence of what Ms. Bhati said, ensuring gender justice does not per se mean to pull out every women from household and get her to be the Chief Justice, but to allow each of our daughters and women to choose and excel in what they want to do, to give them the autonomy to take decision for themselves and act as per that.

Praising the men who contribute and make space for their fellow female colleagues, learned ASG says, the fight is essentially not in equating men and women neck by neck but by allowing women to grow where they are, where they choose to be; the challenge to overcome is the restricted mentality.

This was said in response to Ms. Nesargi’s address where she says that being the 50% of the population, the women should be 50% in each sector, in the Parliament, in the Courts, in all other sectors where they are only in countable numbers. She also marks an important issue of stereotyping women to certain roles, by stating that women see more roles as Air Hostesses, Nurses or Telecom Industry for beautiful faces or sweet voices. “This is not what we have been expecting”, says Ms. Nesargi.

Learned ASG Ms. Bhati said, “There are many progressive and reformative men who have given wings to women in their family & employment. Our battle is with patriarchal mindset. I had an opportunity of representing women army officers. The defences put forward were, that women are not capable of becoming good soldiers. A very progressive Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud & Justice Ajay Rastogi threw away all these arguments & gave a very progressive judgement. This is a battle and this has to start at home.”

Refers Permanent Commission Cases; Babitya Puniya and Col. Nitisha v UOI, Constituent Assembly Debates and practices of inheritance and succession in different religions.

Also draws reference to the UCC being practised in Goa in true spirit and intent, despite people of varied sects residing there; “India is one of those unique countries where injustice is being perpetrated. Every citizen in this country must irrespective of the religion, must be able to enjoy the rights enshrined under the Constitution”, says Ms. Bhati.

With respect to the topic of the session, Learned ASG dismissed all apprehensions floating against the Uniform set of laws; “It is all false alarm. The fact is that they are contractors of religion. All of this is a boogey. It is uniform everywhere except inheritance & succession. It is unfortunate that in today's date we have ask them the question that under which religion were you born and got married.”

Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra says although UCC is desirable but whether achievable or not, is a question we need to determine; “India is a country where many sub sects and sub religious groups exist. The question exists, how do we try to achieve that goal if we consider that it is an achievable code.”

Also cites Swami Vivekananda,

“Religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the difference between beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all such fictions and monstrosities.”

Learned Senior Advocate further referred Shah Bano, Sarla Mudgal and Shayara Bano cases to highlight the evolving jurisprudence on the subject by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.

Also cites Satish Ahuja v. Sneha Chander Ahuja delivered by the Delhi High Court on Women Rights in a Joint Hindu Family, Laxmi Narayan Pandey on inter country adoption.

Referring to Domestic Violence Act, she says, “The Domestic Violence Act though poorly worded is an exceptional Act as it has given women the right to residence irrespective of the Religious laws.”

“We need bigger steps but we need people to be with us to achieve such steps”, Ms. Luthra concludes her address on the forum.

Senior Advocate Ms. Sonia Mathur continues the discourse.

It is marked by an observation made in Shah Bano Begum, which says, “Article 44 of our Constitution has remained a dead letter. There is no evidence of any official activity for framing a common civil code for the country. A common Civil Code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have a conflicting ideologies. It is the State which incharged with the duty of securing a uniform civil code for the citizens of the country and, unquestionably, it has the legislative competence to do so. A beginning has to be made if the Constitution is to have any meaning.”  

Reference is also drawn to the Daniel Latifi Case.

Ms. Mathur says, “There are some more instances where SC has repeatedly stressed for implementation of UCC but it has been reserved in taking steps for its implementation.”

Senior Counsel also remarks that the interests of women are not safeguarded the manner they should be.

On a question raised on Alimony, she said, “There are various provisions applicable for alimony in various religion. We will have to take a threshold point of all the religions for implementing a uniform law related to alimony.”

The Event will continue tomorrow on, Child Rights and Uniform age of Marriage and Uniform Parameters of Guardianship and Adoption