India's Daughter

High drama was witnessed in Court No 3 on Monday, September 14 when Justices V Gopala Gowda and Adarsh Kumar Goel assembled to hear Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association vs Manohar Lal Sharma and Ors, which came up at 2.15 pm.

PTI reported:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from two advocates, representing the 16 December gangrape convicts, against whom a women lawyers body has sought action for allegedly making derogatory remarks against women in a BBC documentary on the case. “We have heard the argument, pleadings and grievances urged in the petition. The matter requires consideration in view of the factual and legal submissions,” a bench comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said.

The bench issued notices to the two advocates, ML Sharma and AP Singh, and sought their response in two weeks. The Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, in its petition, had sought restriction on the entry of the two advocates in the apex court premises, alleging that their remarks in the controversial BBC documentary were “inhumane, scandalous, unjustifiable, biased, outrageous, ill-minded” and are a “direct affront to and in violation of the dignity of women”, especially those practising in the Supreme Court.

"The Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association took umbrage at the comments of advocates ML Sharma and AP Singh in the documentary India’s Daughter and sought a ban on their entry into the apex court premises” by filing a petition before the court, reported The Times of India and others.

The petition stated:

The comments made in the documentary (by the two advocates) are inhumane, scandalous, unjustifiable, biased, outrageous and ill-minded and are a direct affront to and in violation of dignity of women, especially the women practising in the Supreme Court. These comments have caused a sense of insecurity, indignation and fear among the female lawyers practising in the Supreme Court.

The derogatory and insulting words used by Sharma make it clear that according to him women shouldn’t be allowed to go out after the time specified by him; they should have no choice of choosing persons with whom they want to spend time; they shouldn’t be allowed to befriend men; they should not be allowed to live their life as per their wish; that women shall forever be restrained from even thinking of being independent and maintain individuality.

Lawyer Nandita Saikia argues that the controversial BBC documentary on the Delhi gang rape, India’s Daughter, is flawed though no more than our society itself.

The government argued in its advisory sent to TV channels that excerpts from the documentary India’s Daughter shown on some TV channels appeared to “incite violence against women, thus compromising women’s public safety”.