Year ender 2022: 5 landmark judgments passed by SC in favour of women

In 2022, the Supreme Court Of India passed many judgements favouring women.

New Delhi, Dec 21: As we know, 2022 was filled with both positives and negatives for India. Our judiciary despite working in limited capacity has given us a few landmark rulings to cheer.

These rulings have gradually but certainly chipped away absurd norms that have long safeguarded the tenets of patriarchy and upheld women's rights in the country.

Here is a list of landmark decisions that the top court took this year.

Marital rape is rape

In the first legal recognition of marital rape in India, Supreme Court has said that sexual assault by a husband can take the form of rape.

"All women are entitled to safe and legal abortion," Justice DY Chandrachud said while delivering the significant order on terminating pregnancies.

"Under the MTP Act, rapes shall also include marital rape... Sexual assault by husbands can take a form of rape," the court said.

The judgment recognises marital rape though purely within the ambit of abortion. Yet it's a groundbreaking ruling in a country where marital rape is not criminalised.

Safe and legal abortion is every woman's right

In a significant ruling on reproductive rights of women, the Supreme Court held that all women are entitled to safe and legal abortion till 24 weeks of pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, and making any distinction on the basis of their marital status is "constitutionally unsustainable".

"A woman's right to reproductive choice is an inseparable part of her personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution and she has a sacrosanct right to bodily integrity," the court had said.
The bench stated that discrimination on the basis of the marital status of a woman went against her right to equality. According to Rule 3B of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003, some categories of women were allowed to seek termination of pregnancy between 20-24 weeks under certain extraordinary circumstances.

In India, mother has the right to decide child's surname

In another landmark judgment, the Supreme Court said a mother has the right to decide the surname of the child following the death of its father.

A bench of justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Krishna Murari said that the mother, being the only natural guardian, can give the name of her second husband.

A surname refers to the name a person shares with other members of that person's family, distinguished from that person's given name or names.

Two-finger test shows patriarchal mindset

On October 31, 2022, the Supreme reiterated the ban on the two-finger test and said that it is patriarchal and sexist to say that a woman cannot be believed when she states that she was raped merely because she is sexually active.

The court said that those conducting the two-finger (virginity) test on rape survivors should be prosecuted for criminal misconduct. The court said that the two-finger test stands proscribed by the Supreme Court through several judgments starting 2013.

Asking money for construction of house to be treated as dowry

Seeking money for the construction of a house is a 'dowry demand' which attracts offence under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court said while restoring conviction and sentence of a man and his father in a dowry death case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana said Section 304-B was inserted in the IPC to combat the social evil of dowry demand that has reached alarming proportions.

"In the light of the provision (Dowry Act) that defines the word 'dowry' and takes in its ambit any kind of property or valuable security, in our opinion, the High Court fell into an error by holding that the demand of money for construction of a house cannot be treated as a dowry demand," the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said.

The top court said interpretation of a provision of law that will defeat the very intention of the legislature must be shunned in favour of an interpretation that will promote the object sought to be achieved through the legislation meant to uproot a social evil like dowry demand.

with agency inputs