Curing the patriarchal mindset of the legal system

• A sessions court in Kerala, while granting anticipatory bail recently to an author in a case of alleged sexual harassment, observed that the offence under Section 354A of IPC is not attracted when the de facto complainant was dressed in ‘sexually provocative dresses’.

Issue

• It was clearly an affront to a woman’s constitutional right to dignity, life and personal liberty, and privacy.
• The ratio decidendi proclaimed by the sessions court judge is a (patriarchal) Freudian slip.
• Freudian slip
• An error in speech, memory or action occuring due to the interface of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought.
• Aparna Bhat vs State Of Madhya Pradesh (2021)
• SC had held that “the use of reasoning/ language which diminishes the offence and tends to trivialise the survivor [in gender violence cases] is especially to be avoided under all circumstances.
• Above instances are only illustrations of an attitude which should never enter judicial verdicts or orders while making a judicial decision.
• The above comment is a clear violation of the guidelines of SC.

A struggle for women

• Hard process of going to court for women.
• Even harder when women do not have financial or emotional support from their family, custom or the present reading of the law.
• Poor Representation of women in the Indian judiciary.
• Eg, only 11 women judges in top courts.
• Ensuring human dignity is still a broken promise.

Way forward

• Inclusion of feminist jurisprudence in the curriculum for law students
• Sensitisation of legal practitioners and judicial officers about feminist jurisprudence.