Words like slut, eve-teasing, and housewife will soon be not used in hearings of cases by judges and their legal community. These terms may not be used on orders, judgements, pleadings and submissions, as per a handbook released by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
The instruction booklet titled Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes contains a list of 43 gender stereotypes including words like prostitute and provocative clothing.
Prepared by a panel headed by Calcutta High Court judge Moushumi Bhattacharya, the handbook takes a look inward and seeks to clean up the system from within. “This is to assist judges and the legal community to identify, and understand stereotypes about women in legal discourse,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud told PTI.
The handbook also suggests alternate words and phrases to be used instead of the terms that perpetuate gender stereotypes prejudicial to women.
The CJI, in his foreword to the book, has said language is critical to the life of the law and that several phrases used by lawyers and judges reflect archaic ideas with patriarchal undertones. One of the stereotypes is that women are illogical or overly emotional. But the handbook argues that gender does not influence a person’s capacity for rational thought. Judges and lawyers must follow the handbook.
“The Handbook aims to equip judges with the knowledge and tools to critically evaluate their own reasoning, writing and to ensure that justice is served fairly and equitably...The intention is not to criticise or cast doubt on past judgements but merely to show how stereotypes may unwittingly be employed,” CJI Chandrachud states in the book.
The book also condemned the marriage of the victim with her rapist and sought to break assumptions that wives should do all household chores and look after their husband’s parents. The compilation was put together with the help of a high court judge Pratibha Singh and professor Jhuma Sen. Yet another stereotype or line of thinking the book sought to address was that a women’s attire or habits like smoking or drinking, cannot become a contributing factor in sexual crimes.
