Last year, we witnessed several developments that strengthen women's rights in different ways, including judicial pronouncements and legislative developments.
The Supreme Court (SC) released a gender stereotypes handbook with the idea of identifying, understanding, and combating stereotypes about women. It contains a glossary of gender-unjust terms and suggests alternative words or phrases that may be used while drafting pleadings as well as orders and judgments. Given most women-centric judgments were authored by male judges, the SC was successful in espousing an evolved outlook to legal jurisprudence. This served as an embodiment of equity in the justice delivery system.
In 2023, the SC attended to several critical questions that touched upon equality and personal liberty.
In one case (X v Union of India), the SC dealt with a writ petition under Article 32 seeking directions to the Respondents to permit a medical termination of her ongoing pregnancy of over 26 weeks due to post-partum depression and financial constraints. The SC, rejected the request for a medical termination, observing that the protections under Section 3(2B) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 were not attracted. The judgement marked an important turn in abortion jurisprudence in India.