LAW RELATIBG TO WOMEN AND CHILDREN

TOPIC- PROFICIENT JUDICIARY VOWS FOR WOMEN

EMPOWERMENT

ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED TO
FACULTY OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

For the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement in

LL.B. (Hons.)- VIII SEM (SECTION-B)

UNDER GUIDANCE OF: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. Chandra Shekhar Rai Kavyanjali Singh
Faculty of Law Semester 8th, Section B
University of Lucknow Roll number: 200013015089

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance and
assistance from many people and I am extremely privileged to have got this all
along the completion of my project. All that I have done is only due to such
supervision and assistance and I would not forget to thank them.

This work would not have been possible without the support and constant help
of my reverend guide Dr. Chandra Shekhar Rai, Faculty of Law, University of
Lucknow; for his countenance advice, adherent interest and pain taking nature.

I am especially indebted to, Prof. B.D.Singh, Honorable Head and Dean of Law
Faculty, University of Lucknow, who have been supportive of my career goals
and who worked actively to provide me with the protected academic time to
pursue those goals.

I am grateful to all of those with whom I have had the pleasure to work during
this. I am thankful to and fortunate enough to get constant encouragement,
support and guidance from all my friends who helped me in successfully
completing this project work. Also, I would like to extend my sincere esteems
to all family members for their timely support.

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 CONTENTS

S.NO. TOPIC NAME PAGE NUMBER

1. Cover page. 1
2. Index. 2
3. Acknowledgement. 3
4. Status of women at present time 4
5. Problems facing by women at present time 4
6. Domestic laws for women empowerment 5
7. International laws for women empowerment 6
8. Vibrant role of judiciary for women 6
empowerment
9. Suggestions 8
10. Conclusion 10
11. References 11

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"Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated
from all formsof oppression"…. Nelson Mandela1

STATUS OF WOMEN AT PRESENT TIME

By using famous slogan of Viola Davis’, “Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of
what womanhood is. Womanhood is you”; used to refer situations of present time, the status of
women is highly appreciated in technology trends along with judiciary aspirants. By a lot of reasons, a
fresh decade comings with lots of advancements in legal fields, science,technology, entertainment, and
politics by participation of women at a greater global level. In the political field, rising of female
candidates and advocacy can be seen as an example of intending on making female’s voices heard to
strengthen the status, legitimacy and power of women in the present context. In fact, women have
outvoted men in every midterm elections since 1995s and holding capacity of presidential elections
since 1980s. The youth of the Indian labour force has significantly powered and sponsored its
remarkable rapid growths, and the country is now almost at 50:50 gender parity rate in , Legal Arena,
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (LSTEM) and many more graduates2, where
participation of female can be seen at a primary level from emancipation of their unwelcomed position.
Women were portrayed as passive victims since the last long decades, but in the present era women are
supposed to be included in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts along with
reconciliation and transitional justice. But there exists chaos which can be seen as by evaluation of the
clothing level of women in Indian society which has been highly emphasised by Indian Judiciary
through restrictions in various Indian legal provisions.

PROBLEMS FACING BY WOMEN AT PRESENT TIME

Today, thousands of well-educated women are proving their capabilities and skills in modern society

1
Available at: https://genderlinks.org.za/news/nelson-mandela-the-gender-activist-who-never-stopped-learning/
2
Available at: https://go.451research.com/women-in-tech-india-employment-trends.html

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 events. But, unpleasantly they are mediated by facing few obstacles in order to settle their life and
lives. Lack of gender equality at domestic level fails to comply with equality balancing approach to
challenge the male coordinates by females there too. We live in technology eras and women get
complicated situations when it comes to sexual orientation. As per example, IT is one of the worst
sectors having a remarkably higher rate of sexualdiscrimination. Also women face fearing the self
threat of not fitting in the male- dominant sectors is another obstacle in the growth of feminine groups.
Furthermore, it can highly be seen that sometimes it is difficult for women in balancing personal and
professional life where theyare working women. Sometimes they face a lot of challenges because of the
existence of patriarchal society with child bearing and family care roles, low financial positions, limited
educational opportunities, and poor medical care, deep rooted cultural norms. Even females do not have
equal access to autonomy, mobility to outside the home, social freedom, etc than males. Women
especially rape cases were very dreadful and fearful because safety of women matters a lot whether at
home, outside the home or working place.3

DOMESTIC LAWS FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

It should be endeavoured to understand that to educate, to strengthen the status of women is to reduce
many problems such as poverty, basis of voice & agency all across the world. There area lot of domestic
special laws for women to strengthen their position in India. Such as The Prohibition of Child Marriage,
2006; Special Marriage Act, 1954; The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961; Indian Divorce Act, 1969; The
Maternity Benefit Act, 1861; The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971; The Sexual
Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013; The Indecent
Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, 1986; The National Commission for Women Act, 1990;
The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005; The
Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 and along with so on. Other laws such as Indian Penal Code
also carrying out the provisions relating for women concerned with dealing of rape cases; kidnapping
and abduction of women; homicide for dowry, dowry death or their attempts; mental torture;
molestation; sexual harassment. The powers of Indian Judiciary for the protections of constitutional
rights of citizen are of the greatest amplitude. The Judiciary has been proliferated an active role under
the Indian Constitution. Therefore in order to achieve this mission the judiciary has to exercise and
evolve its jurisdiction with courage, creativity and circumstances and with vision, vigilance and

3
http://www.journalijdr.com/brief-study-women-problems-india

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 practical wisdom.4 In a significant case of Delhi Domestic Working Women’s Forum v. Union of
India5, a PIL was filed under Article32 of the Indian Constitution concerned with incident of rape of six
working ladies by seven Army Personnel travelling in Muri Express. In that regard court gave
decisions relating with guidelines for rehabilitation and compensation of working women, associated
with rapevictims. One other highlighted landmark judgment of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, vishaka
is an NGO working for gender equality and the decision of this vishaka case is relating with executive
guidelines for sexual harassment of women at workplace. The learned epic court guided that it is the
duty of an employer to protect and safe her women employee from sexual harassment of the work at
workplace. The Supreme Court held that the epic court has power tolay down any decision under Article
32 to protect their fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 and these guidelines for sexual
harassment at workplace will be considered as law defined by the Supreme Court which comes under
Article 141 of the Indian Constitution.6

INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Various commissions have been established under various conventions relating to women at the
international level. Such as the commission on the status of women (established by ECOSOC) has
drafted the most extensive convention on women’s rights- The Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1979, which came into force on September 3, 1987
and ratified by India in 1993. Another aspect relating with education of women such as the right to
education in The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ECOSOC), The
Convention on the Rights of the Child and The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
have also been recognized. Besides this the right to equality between men and women grasped in their
marital and personal life is also followed in many of human rights instruments, including the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, The
Convention on the Nationality of Discrimination against women, and The Convention on Consent to
Marriage,Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages.

4
Pandey.J.N. (2013) Judicial Activism.s.s. srivastava (Ed.). The Constitutional Law of India (pp 408-419).
5
Delhi Domestic Working Women’s Forum v. Union of India, (1991) 4 SCC 406 (India).

6
Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1997 SC 3011 (India).

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VIBRANT ROLE OF JUDICIARY FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
As we know that legislature is the rule making body and Judiciary is the rule interpreting body as
provisions of the Constitution and all laws enacted by the legislature get their real meaning through the
process of judicial interpretation. It has played a vital role for empowering women through enforcing and
strengthening the constitutional goals towards protection and rights of the women. Along with this the
independent judiciary has played a pivotal role in making the path of new legislations formation by
legislature regarding women protection of rights through its various devices like judicial review, judicial
activism, and social action litigation. In a bunch of cases the judicial decisions taken by the Judiciary has
created a drastic change in the society and paved the way for women empowerment on a large scale.
Judicial decisions have played aimportant role in providing equal status of women in employment. As in
the cases like Air India v. Nergesh Meerza and other7 the Court held that the termination of service on
pregnancy was unreasonable and arbitrary. It is violative of article 14 and discriminating women on
gender basis. In A.N. Rajamma v. State of Kerala8court upholds the principle of equality and put forth
the female employees at par with male employees. In several Cases like Peoples Union for Democratic
Rights v. Union of India9, Randhir Singh v. Union of India100, Sanjit Roy v. State of Rajasthan111,
Uttarakhand Mahila Kalyan Parishad v. State of Uttar Pradesh12etc. where Constitutional goal of
"equal pay for equal work" enshrined in Article 39(a), which implicit in Article 14 and 16 of the
Constitution is achieved through judicial decisions. This is done by the court to establish gender equality.
In the significant case Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan13 The Apex Court had framed guidelines for
protection of sexual abuse working women at work place and held that it is the duty of employer to
protect them from being harassed. Later on which is recognised by parliament and enacted an act Sexual
Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 which is for the
protection of working women being sexually harassed at work places. Judiciary has played a marked role
in criminal offences against women. A very famous case that is Laxmi v. Union of India14 where Apex
Court imposed stringent regulations on the sale of acid in 2013. As In 2006, Laxmi, an acid attack victim,

7
Air India v. Nergesh Meerza and other , (1981) 4 SCC 335 (India).
8
A.N. Rajamma v. State of Kerala , 1983 Lab.I.C. 1388 (India).
9
Peoples Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India , AIR 1982 SC 1473 (India).
10
Randhir Singh v. Union of India , AIR 1982 SC 879 (India).
11
Sanjit Roy v. State of Rajasthan , AIR 1983 SC 328 (India).
12
Uttarakhand Mahila Kalyan Parishad v. State of Uttar Pradesh , AIR 1992 SC 1695 (India).

13
Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, (1997) 6 SCC 241 As (India).

14
Laxmi v. Union of India, (2014) 4 SCC 427 (India).

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filed a petition seeking measures to regulate the sale of acid and provide adequate compensation to the
victim. the Supreme Court issued several directions for the protection of acid attack victims such as:
minimum 3 Lakh Rupees compensation for victims, adequate publicity of victim compensation schemes,
private hospitals must not refuse treatment to victims, and full treatment must include medicines, food,
bedding and reconstructive surgeries. In plethora of cases like in Delhi Domestic Working Women’s
Forum v. Union of India15,in which a PIL is filed under article 32 for the protection of rape victims. In
Muri Express six working ladies were travelling and where they were rapedby seven Army Personnel. In
this case enacted the Guidelines for rehabilitation and compensation of Working Women who are rape
victims. In Bodhisathwa Gautam v. Subhra Chakraborty16, in Chairman, Railway Board v.
Chandrima Das,17 cases where court held that women also have the right to life and liberty; they also
have the right to be respected and reacted as equal citizens. Many a times judiciary plays an important
role to provide fair against personal laws that causes root of discrimination. As in case of Shah
Bano18where the Supreme Court set aside the personal law and bring the Muslim women under the
purview of Section 125 Cr.p.c for getting maintenance beyond iddat period. Similarly in case of
Shamim Ara19, the Apex Court declared that the triple talaq is invalid form of talaq. In Ravi Kumar v.
State20, Lata Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh21, it was held by the court that Right to Marriage is an
essential right and it comes under purview of Art.21. The right to choose their partners without any
compulsion is to be considered as their fundamental rights. In CEHAT v. UOI and others22 the
Supreme Court had played such important role and given several directions regarding sex selection and
sex selective abortion by saying that female foeticide as a heinous act and an indicator of violence against
women. Apex court issued several beneficial directives and monitored for the proper implementation of
Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act. Nirbhaya case23 in which a young woman was brutally gang raped
in a public transport vehiclein the late evening of December 16, 2012. After this, On December 23 2012
a three member Committee headed by Justice J.S Verma, was constituted to recommend amendment to

15
Delhi Domestic Working Women’s Forum v. Union of India , (1995) 1 SCC 1(India).

16
Bodhisathwa Gautam v. Subhra Chakraborty , (1996) I SCC 490 (India).
17
Chairman, Railway Board v. Chandrima Das , AIR 2000 SC 988
18
Mohd. Ahmad Khan v. Shah Bano Begum, AIR 1985 SC
19
Shamim Ara v. State of UP, 2002 (7) SCC 518 (India)
20
Ravi Kumar v. State, 124 (2005) DLT 1 (India).
21
Lata Singh v. State of UP, (2006) 5 SCC 475 (India).
22
CEHAT v. UOI and others, (2003) 8 SCC 412 (India).
23
Mukesh v. State (NCT of Delhi), 2017 6 SCC 1 (India).

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the criminal law for the stringent law regarding rape offences. As the committee recommended to
provide for faster trail and increased punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault
against women. It made recommendations on laws related to Acid attacks, Sexual harassment,
Voyeurism, Stalking, Trafficking of person, and Rape. On the recommendation of that committee, The
Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 came into drive from 3 April 2013.

SUGGESTIONS

Actual implementation without any hesitation is to be needed for being any act successful. As the
Empowerment of Women is done by our constitution and legislature but somehow there is lack of
implementation. Actually it is not implemented to its fullest extent. So actual women empowerment
will not be done unless and until these laws will be actually implemented in realsense.

There is dire need to be awareness among women for their protection of right. As most of the women
who are victims of any kind of offence do not want to go to the court for their protection. The reason
behind this is that fear that they will be socially criticised no man will come with marriage proposal to
such woman whose modesty is outraged. Even Most of the women do not know about what women
empowerment is and what are their legal rights becauseof less educated. Unless we don’t know our right,
we can’t protect it. As Melinda Gates rightly said that “Women and girls should be able to determine
their own future, no matter wherethey’re born.”24

The following observations made by late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru indicate the role which legislation
can play in dealing with the evil are:-

"Legislation cannot by itself normally solve deep-rooted social problems. One has to approach
them in other ways too, but legislation is necessary and essential, so that it may give that push
and have that educative factor as well as the legal sanctions behind it which help public opinion
to be given a certain shape."

Thus necessary steps should be taken for women empowerment. There should be organisation of

24
Available at: https://www.quotes.mirrorreview.com/women-in-business/melinda-gates-quotes-philanthropy-
women-empowerment/

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education camps to providing knowledge to the women for their rights. There should be arrangements
of advocate who can provide legal guidance to her.

Along with this social and educational awareness, judiciary have to play an important, dynamic role for
the women empowerment. They should be more vigilant in protecting the rights of women by
providing more positive judgement in favour of women victims.

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CONCLUSION

"You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women"....
Jawaharlal Nehru.

Women empowerment, as it is need of the hour to have aware and empowered women. As an
empowered woman not only protects herself but also protect people around her. So it is time to break
silence and fight for right place in this society. It should be start from ourselves our family itself.
Women are an integral part of a society and a nation. They play an important role in determining the
destiny of a nation. It has been rightly said by Swami Vivekananda, "The Best thermometer to the
progress of nation is its treatment of women".

Judiciary is playing a vibrant role for women empowerment. As by doing this it is not to understand
that Judiciary is transgressing upon the powers of the other two organs that is the legislature and the
executive but it is the demand of the time for the betterment of status of women. Judiciary has the role
of interpretation of law so it tries to interpret the laws according to the principles enshrined behind
making that law.

By quoting the root of dharma, Where the ladies are respected there the Gods reside (“Yatra naryastu
pujyante ramante tatra Devata”), we hope that in upcoming years women empowerment will
demonstrate its eminent at the top most level as we have on the path as a process of empowerment. In
this regard judicial activism is continuously working in energetic way. But, here it is also important that
every person should come forward to ensure on equal footing for status and dignity of women in all
spheres of life.

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REFERENCES:

1. Books- Pandey.J.N. (2013) Judicial Activism.s.s. srivastava (Ed.). The Constitutional

Law ofIndia, Allahabad:Central Law Agency
2. Websites:-
a. www.journalijdr.com
b. Scc online
c. Ip blog leaders
d. legalservicesindia

3. Journals:

a. Women’s Rights are Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner, New York and
Geneva,2014.

b. International Journal of Research in all Subjects in Multi Languages (National Conf.

On 21st Century: Changing Trends in the Role of Women-Impact on Various Fields),
Vol. 6, Sp. Issue:3, March: 2018 (IJRSML) ISSN: 2321 – 2853.

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