What To Not Call Women In Court Orders: Supreme Court’s Guide For Judges

New Delhi:

In a big move towards gender sensitisation in legal proceedings, the Supreme Court today launched a handbook that lists words and phrases loaded with gender stereotypes and cautions judges against using them in court orders.

At the launch of the ‘Handbook On Combating Gender Stereotypes’, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud cited several offensive words that have been used for women in past court judgments. “These words are improper and have been used for women in court judgments. This handbook’s objective is not to criticise those judgments or doubt them. This is just to underline how gender stereotypes are perpetuated inadvertently,” he said.

The handbook’s goal is to define these stereotypes and spread awareness among them, he said. “This will help judges identify words that are stereotypical towards women,” the Chief Justice said, adding that the handbook will be uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website.

At a public event in March, the Chief Justice had said a handbook to flag gender stereotypes was in the works.

“For instance, I have come across judgments which have referred to a woman as a ‘concubine’ when she is in a relationship. Women have been called ‘keeps’ in judgements where there were applications for quashing of FIRs under the Domestic Violence Act and Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code,” he had said, explaining the reasons for preparing this handbook.

The handbook to bust gender stereotypes is yet another progressive move by the Supreme Court during the tenure of Chief Justice Chandrachud. Earlier, the Supreme Court moved to translate its judgments into regional languages to make them more accessible.

The move has earned praise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who mentioned it during his Independence Day Speech at Red Fort yesterday. The Chief Justice, who was seated in the audience, responded with a folded hands gesture.

The Supreme Court has uploaded 9,423 of its verdicts in regional languages so far.

“Our target is to make a total of 35,000 key decisions since the Supreme Court came into existence accessible to people in all languages,” the Chief Justice has said.

Besides Hindi, the judgments are now available on the Supreme Court website in Odia, Gujarati, Tamil, Assamese, Khasi, Garo, Punjabi, Nepali and Bengali. More languages will be added to this list soon.