‘When cases are dismissed as govt policy matters, Constitution stands diminished’

Senior advocate and social activist Indira Jaising in her book The Constitution is my Home reflects on the state of judiciary and legal profession today, and on her work in advocating the rights of women, be it the Mary Roy case, Sabarimala issue, Shayara Bano or Rupan Deol Bajaj. In an interview, she talks of judicial corruption, women’s rights and the executive’s control over courts. Edited excerpts:

- IVINDER GILL

You begin the book by comparing preparing for a case with a nine-month pregnancy, saying only a woman can argue a case well. But in a country where only 15% lawyers are women, about 13% women judges, abysmally low senior partners in law firms, and no woman CJI yet—Justice BV Nagarathna will be first woman CJI next year for only 36 days—how did you survive what is obviously a man’s world?

I survived by focusing my attention on my areas of interest. My question has always been what women bring to the table. And my answer to that is: a new epistemology, a lived experience and a knowledge of love and life. I’ve used the Constitution as an instrument of social change, seen through the eyes of a woman. Women are survivors, but they are also mischievous survivors. I did not compromise on my femininity, nor did I want to talk and walk like a man.

You write about a lack of guarantee of equality before the law for women and that women are outcasts in the eyes of law. Would you blame the Constitution for it or male dominance in the judicial set-up?