Fair fare for females

Law-making in the land can be traced to a period of its centuries of history, whether recorded or not, to as far back as one’s ability to look back. Narratives which are part of the country’s epics including Ramayana and Mahabharata too have their share of references to law-making. Not only India’s much-adored Constitution is made up of the greatest number of words for its counterpart in any country across the world but also India’s cornucopia of laws, rules and regulations, both invoking the Constitution and otherwise, has crossed humongous numbers, requiring nothing less than a genius to make out what these laws amount to in gist. The fact is that there are smart lawyers who can turn and twist the laws to the advantage of their patronising clients sending the Judges into a spin. The successive governments are obliged to pass fresh laws as they find cracks in earlier laws, thanks to the inevitable offending sections of society whose whole-time activity to break the laws, however stiff. The litmus test for any government to provide good governance is to rein in the law-breaking mass.

The current unmistakable law-related scenario in the land is marked by not only the relentless measures by the government to induce the masses to fall in line as it were but also campaigns by various voluntary groups to join hands with the government. Both parties are waging a losing battle by resorting to road-shows, short-text-graphics on television, posters and so on, making a low-level impact in changing the public conduct of law-breakers. The only other option has been to take the offenders to the Court and get the decision.

While the public perception of the 24 High Courts and other subsidiary temples of Justice across the land, barring exceptions, doesn’t need to be explicitly mentioned, lately the Nation’s Apex Court has taken upon itself to act as a regulator of almost all aspects of people’s life, particularly criminal acts of both the high and mighty in the land as well as ordinary citizens. While the members of the ruling juntas at the Centre as well as the States and Union Territories in the company of bureaucrats have saturated the Courts by their whole-time corrupt practises, currently the land has begun to witness unfair deal to females all the way upto assaults, including rape starting from decimation of the female foetus, not to forget marriage of the girl child.

A four-column headline in a widely circulated National daily reading “A woman doesn’t mortgage herself to a man with marriage,” quotes the Chief Justice of India. In addition, various issues relating to adultery, a captive-crime monopolised by the male are currently getting the attention of the Supreme Court. One gets the impression that the final verdict of the Apex Court will be in the nature of a fair fare for females in the land.