Supreme Court and High Court Judgements Relating to Women and Children

This book is an effort to hand women an instrument to understand and use the law. The principles of fairness and equity are enshrined in the Constitution of India, that unequivocally mandates gender equality. Such equality – truly in fact and deed – is a national imperative for no nation can hope to attain its full potential of development if it were to underutilize or suppress half its human resource that women represent. Discrimination and violence against women don’t just victimize the individual women, but do indeed hold back whole sections of society. Guaranteeing rights to women and enabling them to effectively access these rights and entitlements is an investment in making the whole nation stronger and self-reliant. India is a multi-linguistic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious country of more than a billion people, of which almost half comprise females. For the vast mass of these women it is particularly the Personal law that principally governs their lives, though to many the exact dimensions and how it controls the lives of each one of us may not be very clear. Simply stated, women in India though common in need and circumstance are divided by caste, religion, social and regional customs and are therefore unable to agitate or ensure a humane and equitable entitlement for themselves on issues which are fundamental to all women, such as, maintenance, custody, physical and mental security in marriage, fair and equal divorce entitlements. It is in this context that a book like this become important in bringing together in a single text all the laws that effect women. A study of the case law compiled points to an encouraging trend, that courts by their liberal interpretation of the statutory provisions have significantly leveled the playing field for women by making the implementation of law more egalitarian. The book has been formulated like a dictionary wherein catch words have been identified under each of the listed categories and catalogued in alphabetical order.