When B.R Ambedkar and other extraordinary minds of our country endeavoured to draft the lengthiest Constitution in the world, we can only imagine that their interpretation of freedom of speech and expression might have widely differed from ours, in this present day and age. As a country that boasts of the alleged privilege that its citizens seem to enjoy, the word democracy ends up getting lost in the many mazes created by those who do little to protect the interest of human lives and the dignity we are promised when we are warmly enveloped in the arms of Mother India. I say Mother because it is this very amount of respect that women seemed to have lost, throughout the country and it is this exact respect that is glorified and ultimately destroyed, when a mastermind creates a work of art, hoping to convey to the people the richness of the culture that we see but rarely bask in.

The past few weeks have been tumultuous, for not just the film industry but citizens of the country, in general. As the youth of the nation were attacked with rocks and multiple cases of rapes were reported and eventually forgotten, little was done by the promisors of our freedom of speech, art and expression to save us from the abuse we faced as a nation.

A renowned philosopher once said – “When stones are cast at good people and when the rights of honest, hard working people are trampled, we should be angry.” And angry, we were. As citizens who grew up reading the constitution multiple times, only to have our mouths sewed up by the unreasonable political agendas of those who threatened our dignity, we stood unitedly against the oppressors. It was the power of the law which stood by us, the voice of the highest law making body that gave us the platform to speak and the anguish of having our children face the wrath, that made us tremble with rage.

A movie that does nothing but glorify the one of the strongest people India has ever come to see, Padmaavat continues to enamour the audience, as much as it would have before the cuts, crosses and protests. The graceful demeanour of the artists and the incredible work of one of the most respected creators in the country continues to overpower those who thought that the protection of a woman long gone justified acts like Jauhar, which added a much needed irony to the entire controversy.

Come February and a large population will end up forgetting the war of words that India fought to protect each other, but as warriors of truth and justice, upholding the ideals of our country and protecting the honour of women at large, we will continue our revolution against anyone who demeans our freedom.

— Surabhi Bhandari is a UK qualified lawyer, with an LLB (Hons.) degree from Cardiff University, Wales. As an aspiring Media & Entertainment law solicitor, she pursued the Legal Practice Course at BPP University, London, and is currently in the process of qualifying as an advocate in India, from National Law University, Delhi. She is the principal legal advisor of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK and is actively involved in representing Indian students, abroad.

As we embarked on our 71st year of independence this year, India witnessed some laudable landmark judgments in the following weeks. India, diverse and abundant in both in its culture, beliefs, and population has long been led by its traditions and customs which have been impinging basic human rights for years along. Despite having a inclusive constitution, which acts as the cornerstone of law and order, and revered by legal academicians worldwide, the rise of communal disputes, sexual offences and ill-treatment of women in the nation called an emergence for judicial intervention.

The judgements in the week of 22 August 2017 brought with them a revolution in the perception of the Indian judiciary. On August 22, the Supreme Court struck down instant triple talaq practiced among Muslims. On August 24, the Apex Court upheld the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Most heroically, the week was topped off by the sentencing of alleged God man, Ram Rahim, following a 15 year long rape case, despite the fact that 200,000 of his followers incited riots in the region. Following is my personal take on this week’s judicial events as the legal game-changer:

Triple Talaq Verdict

The majority view of the bench described instant triple talaq as instant divorce which arbitrarily allowed a Muslim man to breakdown marriage whimsically. While this type of divorce is valid under Islam, by no means is it morally and now constitutionally justified. In fact, 22 majority Muslim countries have banned triple talaq on grounds of it being undesirable and improper. Triple Talaq verdict establishes a significant step towards women empowerment as it recognises the unjust and biased authority that is placed in the hands of a man to circumvent marriage for reasons he may find fit. In today’s day where women across the globe have successfully overcome several challenges in various strata of the society, the fact that a Muslim woman in India faces a challenge that jeopardises a woman’s right to have a say in her own intimate space such as marriage is wrong and abusive. Although, questions still hover around this topic and the judiciary must make every effort to encourage gender equality, this verdict has indeed attempted to bridge gender inequality by setting a legal case precedent that promises greater strides by the judiciary on this issue in coming years.

Right to Privacy

Internationally, privacy is considered to be fundamental to the basic values of the legal framework however, India has been circumspect to its very perception. Any individual’s privacy is just as crucial as any other fundamental right stipulated under the Constitution such as right to food, shelter, life, liberty etc. However, until before this judgement, privacy was an element that could be encroached and overridden by any other fundamental right.

With the unfortunate vulnerabilities that Northern India faced in this decade, especially with respect to women, it may not be completely incorrect to assume that our society has been struggling to upgrade its status from ‘developing’ to ‘developed’ because we have been failing to recognise and respect another’s personal space and choices.

The introduction of right to privacy would have effects on the intrinsic social and traditional fabric of the Indian society and it does not seem long until the apex court uses social media platforms as a testing grounds for data protection and privacy.

Ram Rahim Verdict

The judgement that literally brought the self-proclaimed Godman to knees begging for mercy! There is no novelty attached to the ideology that every person chases after authority, fame, popularity and money but the very fact that an individual believes that it is his inherent right to abuse faith and worship to extort not just money but use so-called devotees for sexual pleasure is simply satanic.

Justice Jagdeep Singh’s verdict reinstates the maxim of ‘Rule of Law’ – nobody is above the law. As citizens of a global world and belonging to a country which is abundant with resources and talent, it has been our failure to be unable to prevent people such as Gurmeet Ram Rahim to rise. Such social fragments intrinsically degrade the reputation and humanity rendering the entire nation humiliated through their evil acts.

As mentioned above, women even today are very often silenced at every stage. When a woman is faced with a sexual violation done to her, it takes a lot of courage for her to speak up against it to either her family, and/or openly in court, or both. To muster this very courage and to stand up against someone of Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s stature, the impeccable advocacy tailored by Advocate Utsav Singh Bains is a tribute to every woman who has been raped under the pretence of serving a man (who is apparently the stronger and deserving gender), or a Godman.

While the verdict is satisfactory, how many more rapes do women have to go through for the rapist mind set to completely cease? Somehow it is an accepted fashion to light candles when someone is raped, but how is it a natural consequence to burn the city down to fear conviction of a de facto wrongdoing? Girls and women are taught from a very early age that it is a wide and wild world out there and she must make sure she is safe right from stepping out of her house until she is back home and in some unfortunate cases, even whilst she is at home. Probably it is time that the wide and wild world makes an effort to allow the male human counter-part i.e. females to exercise their already existing fundamental right- right to life and right to liberty. Earlier this week, the Indian government rejected petitions to criminalise marital rape under the justification that our country faces several other problems such as illiteracy and poverty. It is imperative that the judiciary ensures that our women are specifically protected, not because they are the only ones harmed but there needs a change in mind set that can only be driven by installing strong punitive provisions against sexual offences by and large.

In conclusion, these verdicts definitely mark a sharp turn in the history of the Indian judiciary. Hoping for consistency and persistence, it will not be long until our judiciary will be widely applauded for the measures it installs and the discipline it imbibes in our system as an established, revered constitutional judiciary.

— Gayatri Rawtal, Vice President (Student Affairs), heads the legal department of NISAU. Gayatri is a UK law graduate with LLB (Hons.) degree from Queen Mary University of London. She aspires to pursue a career as a commercial solicitor and has recently completed the Legal Practice Course from the University of Law. She liaises with government and non-government stakeholders such as legal practitioners to guide international students on a myriad of queries ranging from immigration regulations to issues with education providers, loss of identity etc.

               by Gayatri Rawtal | August 30, 2017