Introduction

• Empowering women to make their own decisions without any limitations and treating them at par with men is imperative for the holistic development of the nation.
•  Realising this our Constitution guarantees the right to equality and the right to not be discriminated against on the basis of sex.
• Issues related to women empowerement which have been discussed by the Constitution bench of Supreme Court of India in the recent years.

Section 497

• It penalizes any man who has illicit relations with the wife of another man without the consent or connivance of that man. This is an extremely gender biased provision and Is violative of both article 14 and 15 of constitution of India.
• Firstly, it treats a woman like the property of her husband. It is not an offence if such an act is done ‘with the consent or connivance’ of the husband.
• Secondly, the offence is said to be committed by the man having illicit relations with the wife of another man and the wife is not punishable even as an abettor as she is treated like a victim.
• Thirdly, if a man has relations outside the marriage, neither him nor the woman with whom he has such relations can be prosecuted.
•  The recommendations by the 42nd Law Report, 1971 and the Malimath Committee Report,2013, to amend the definition to make it gender neutral, have failed to materialize.
• It has just to light recently in Joseph Shine v. UOI, wherein the bench observed that in this provision, the concept of gender neutrality is absent and it creates a dent on the individual identity of a women

Issue of Triple Talaq

• Another issue with which the Supreme Court of India dealt with was the so-called provision of Instant Triple Talaq.
• Many Muslim majority countries, including Pakistan, have abolished this practice. Finally, in 2017 the constitutional validity of Instant Triple Talaq came before the Supreme Court of India in the case of Shayara Bano V Union of India. By a 3:2 majority, it was held to be unconstitutional, arbitrary and violative of Article 14.
• However, other forms of talaq still exist, wherein Muslim men still have the power to pronounce divorce without resorting to any legal recourse.
• In December 2017, the Muslim Women (Protection of Right on Marriage) Bill, 2017 was introduced in the Lok Sabha, which seeked to make Instant Triple Talaq a cognizable and non-bailable offence.
• The Bill, in its present form, cannot be said to be devoid of problems. It raises important questions such as- is making it a cognizable offence fair to the Muslim men? Under the Indian Penal Code 1860 the offences related to marriage, where no physical harm is caused to the wife, are made non-cognizable to ensure that prosecution can only be at the instance of the aggrieved party.
•  The Bill, in an attempt to promote the rights of the Muslim women, may inadvertently prejudice the rights of the Muslim men and discriminate against them.

Right to Property

• The amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 gave women the right to a share in the joint family property of both, the parents and the in-laws.
• The ouster of women from right to inherent and own property, if they married outside the community, is present under tribal law as well as under various religious laws.

Right to Religious Identify

• Similar is the situation under the Parsi Laws, where Parsi women who marry outside their community are said to have lost their religious identity. The children of a Parsi man married outside the community, can become a Parsi.
•  However, the children of a Parsi woman married outside the community cannot become a Parsi. A Parsi woman married out the community is not allowed to visit the Tow of Silence and attend her parents funeral rituals.
•  This was challenged by a Parsi woman, Goolrukh Gupta in the Gujarat High Court, wherein the Court upheld the decision to debar a Parsi woman from performing religious practices by observing that in all religions, whether Christianity, Parsi, or Judaism, the religious identity of a woman shall merger into that of her husband.
• When this ruling was challenged in the Supreme Court of India, the Parsi Trust went against its age-old tradition and stated that it would allow her to visit the “Tower of Silence” to attend her parents’ funeral rituals.

Physical Molestation

• After the infamous Nirbhaya gang-rape case that the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act,2013 (Anti-Rape Bill) was passed under which the definition was enlarged.
•  The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 was passed which provided that a juvenite, 16 years or older, who a heinous offence (offence punishable with imprisonment of seven years or more) will be tried as an adult.
• After the Kathua gang-rape case, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 was approved by the President, under which the quantum of punishment for rape was increase especially in case of a girl under 16 years of age.
•  However, the definition of rape, does not recognise ‘marital rape’ as ‘rape’, unless the wife is under 15 years of age.

Common Civil Code

•  With the increase in the number of women approaching the Courts to protect their fundamental rights, the Law Commission has been asked to probe into the possibility of implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in India.
•  The Supreme Court of India has observed in Mohd. Ahmed Khan vs Shah Bano Begum that it is a matter of regret that Article 44 of our Constitution has remained a dead letter.
•  Again, in Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India the Supreme Court discussed the need for a Uniform Civil Code.

Conclusion:

• Thus over the years the need for reform has been recognised in India and the Supreme Court of India has been playing a constructive role in reshaping laws which have become archaic. However, we still have a long way to move towards achieving an equal status for women in the society.