Judicial Interpretation and Gender Justice in India: An Assessment of Landmark Ruling

The term "gender" denotes the socially constructed roles and actions allocated to men and women in a particular society. According to Kofi Annan, “Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.” Gender disparity uncovers prejudice against men, women, and transgender people in terms of personality, worth, behaviour, language, employment, status within the home, the community, and faith, among other areas. India is a male-dominated society which assigns to females a subordinate position in the social hierarchy. One way to conceptualize gender justice is as an idea that envisions a society free from prejudice based on gender. The Indian judiciary has initiated proactive stance by their constructive elucidation of the numerous constitutional sections for promoting women's rights, ensuring the legality of multiple laws, and establishing broad principles to actualize the concepts of "women empowerment" and "women's dignity." Although several measures have been made periodically to achieve gender parity, much more needs to be done as India continues to lag behind in the Global Gender Gap Index. One of the Sustainable Development Goals (5 SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) is to uplift all women and girls and achieve gender parity. Hence, the paper attempt to analyse significant rulings to assess how the Indian judiciary has responded to the idea of gender justice.

Keywords:
Gender Justice, Judiciary, Indian Constitution, Patriarchy and Marginalisation, Indian Women