Justice Gita Mittal speaks at the Inaugural Indian Feminist Judgments Project

The inaugural workshop of the Indian Feminist Judgments Project kick started yesterday at Delhi’s NTH Complex. The project aims at analyzing the association of feminist ideas with the country’s justice system..The event was attended by Retired Supreme Court Judge Justice Ruma Pal, Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Justice Gita Mittal, activist lawyer Vrinda Grover, VC of OP Jindal Global University Prof. C Raj Kumar and VC of NLU Delhi Prof. Ranbir Singh among others..At the outset, Prof. Raj Kumar highlighted the issue of lack of representation of women in the judiciary. He stated that he often hears that it is difficult to find competent women judges. Jokingly he said, that since there are so many incompetent male judges, having a few incompetent female judges would not hurt..Professor Jhuma Sen, who conceptualized the project, stated that the Indian Feminist Judgments Project would be the first of its kind in South Asia and will join its sister projects which are working in the west..Justice Gita Mittal delivered the keynote address at the event. She stated that initially, she was not sure as to what feminist judgments meant. Then she spoke to people associated with the project including Prof. Jhuma Sen and Prof. Aparna Chandra who explained to her in detail as to what the project was all about..Justice Mittal stated that after getting to know about the project she started re-looking at the judgments authored by her, from a feminist perspective. She spoke about the feminist views of several other jurists of India as well as of other countries. She said,.“Several questions come to mind when we talk about feminist judging….However, such conversations do not ordinarily take place in courtrooms.” .Justice Mittal referred to several judgments (delivered by her as well as by other judges) which espoused feminist ideals including the one which opened the gates for women to join the territorial army..She also spoke about colloquialism by investigators as well as judicial officers while dealing with cases regarding sexual offences. She gave instances where the offence was referred to as ‘Gandi Baat‘, ‘Galat Kaam‘ etc. by investigators and how it becomes difficult to adjudicate matters..Justice Mittal stated that feminist judgments have not always been delivered by women judges. Male judges have also done a lot for the feminist cause..During the informal discussion between the panel and the audience, Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Gita Mittal shared their experiences about the kind of obstacles faced by them as lawyers as well as judges. .Both the judges said that women had to work twice as hard as compared to their male counterparts to achieve the same respect and success. They also talked about dealing with the patronizing attitude of some people and the work they put in to be taken seriously. .Advocate Vrinda Grover weighed in by saying that many chief justices have asked lawyers to take up issues of social importance. However, when it comes to the courtrooms, that lawyer commands the most respect who is making the maximum amount of money. .Finally, the discussion ended on a lighter note with Justice Ruma Pal sharing an anecdote wherein a lawyer, talking about the working of a washing machine, said to her – “Your honor would know what I am talking about”, which left everyone in splits.