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Must imbibe feminist views in law: Supreme Court judge DY Chandrachud
SC judge Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud is set to take over as the 50th Chief Justice of India on November 9. He will have a tenure of two years at the helm.
Feminist approach should be imbibed while dealing with law, Supreme Court justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud on Saturday, adding that it is going to be a great challenge to convert the potential of women into transformational change for the Indian society.
Speaking at the convocation of the National Law University (NLU), Delhi, justice Chandrachud advised the young lawyers to think beyond the postulates of law that exist in pre-existing societal and gender codes.
“Law operates in pre-existing societal and gender codes, often contributing to the construction of gendered identities and as legal professionals, you should use deconstructive techniques to critique the existing legal philosophies and expose the ideological thinking that forms the sub-stratum of law… I would particularly advise you to incorporate feminist thinking in the way you deal with the law,” he said.
Justice Chandrachud is set to take over as the 50th Chief Justice of India on November 9. He will have a tenure of two years at the helm.
Lauding the number of female students who had bagged gold medals, the SC judge said that this is just an indicator of the times we live in and the times that are going to come.
Justice Chandrachud attributed the success of the female students to the challenges faced by them in the Indian society and said that it is time for introspection and reflection as to how the potential of women in our society could be channelised into remarkable transformation.
“I think the aspiration for mobility to combat the challenges that women face in our society is reflected in very large measure of the tremendous success which young women are achieving. It is time for us to introspect and reflect on how we create conditions where this potential which they express in terms of the medals that they get, translates into real time changes in our society. I think that this is going to be a great challenge of our time of converting this potential into a transformation in Indian society,” justice Chandrachud said during his address.
Recounting his experience as a newly inducted judge at the Bombay high court, the next CJI in line said that he used to sit in a criminal roster with justice Ranjana P Desai and heard diverse criminal appeals.
“Initially, I viewed the matters where women were often subjected to the worst of crimes and violations from a straitjacketed perspective, but sitting with a colleague who had a more diverse exposure to realities of gender gave me the necessary feminist perspective,” he said. “Of course, I believe that all of us, including myself, have a lot to learn in terms of how we perceive law and apply social experiences,” he added.
Justice Chandrachud further said that his vision in criminology as a young student was substantially altered when he attended the classes of Professor Lotika Sarkar, who taught criminology with a feminist perspective, at the Campus Law Centre at Delhi University.
Talking about the challenges faced by the women lawyers, justice DY Chandrachud said that “women lawyers may especially find it challenging to work in a male-dominated profession which more often than not fails to accommodate their concerns and opinions”, even though he acknowledged that the time is changing.
Saying that technology has been a great enabler in liberating women in their access to the legal profession, the SC judge said: “One of the great learning of the pandemic is that when we went virtual in our court hearings, number of women lawyers who were appearing in the court dramatically increased because these young women who were performing manifold tasks, who were combining a multitude of obligations as professionals, as mothers, as friends, as spouses, as employees... they were able to spend their time productively and address the court instead of being daunted by the sea of men around them in the court.”
He asked the young law graduates to stick to the ethics and look beyond the self-centred vision of their own existence.
He said that rule of law did not merely depend on the Constitution or legislation and largely depended on the political culture and the habits of citizens, especially young legal professionals who were present before him.
“In a sense, all of you are the guardians of our constitutional and democratic traditions and to you is entrusted the responsibility of ensuring that rule of law is not substituted by rule by the law… You must strive to make the legal system more inclusive and accessible when you become a part of it and this is one way to further the goal of justice,” he added.
