Indira Jaising

Last updated

Indira Jaising
Advocate Indira Jaising.jpg
Born
Indira Jaising

(1940-06-03) 3 June 1940 (age 84)
Occupation Lawyer
Known forHuman rights and gender equality activism
Spouse Anand Grover

Indira Jaising (b. 3 June 1940) is an Indian lawyer and activist. Jaising also runs Lawyers' Collective, a non-governmental organization (NGO), the license of which was permanently cancelled by the Home Ministry for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (alleged misuse of foreign funds) in 2019. The Bombay High Court later passed an order to de-freeze NGO's domestic accounts. The case is ongoing in the Supreme Court of India.

Contents

Early life

Jaising was born on 3 June 1940 in Mumbai to a Sindhi Hindu family. [1] She attended St. Teresa's Convent High School, Santacruz, Mumbai, and the Bishop Cotton Girls' School, Bengaluru. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Bangalore University. [1] In 1962, she earned a Master of Laws from the University of Bombay. [1]

In 1986, she became the first woman to be designated a Senior Advocate by the Bombay High Court. In 2009, Jaising became the first female Additional Solicitor General of India. From the beginning of her legal career, she has focused on the protection of human rights and the rights of women. [2] [3]

Fighting for women

Jaising argued several cases relating to discrimination against women, [4] [5] including Mary Roy's case, [6] which led to the grant of equal inheritance rights for Syrian Christian women in Kerala, and the case of Rupan Deol Bajaj, the IAS officer who had successfully prosecuted KPS Gill for outraging her modesty. [7] This was one of the first cases of sexual harassment that had been successfully prosecuted. Jaising also argued the case of Githa Hariharan, in which the Supreme Court decided that a mother is equally a natural guardian of a child as a father. [8] Jaising also successfully challenged the discriminatory provisions of the Indian Divorce Act in the High Court of Kerala, thus enabling Christian women to get a divorce on the ground of cruelty or desertion, a right which was denied to them. She has also represented Teesta Setalvad in a case where she was targeted and accused of embezzling money. [9]

In 2015, Jaising argued the case for Priya Pillai in the Green Peace India case. [10] In 2016, Indira Jaising challenged the procedure for designating senior advocates in the Supreme Court. [11]

More recently, Indira Jaising wrote a column for The Indian Express, criticizing the manner in which the Indian Supreme Court rejected Nupur Sharma's plea for consolidation of FIRs in criminal cases filed against her for allegedly defaming Prophet Mohammed. In the article, Jaising said the Supreme Court's "remarks against Sharma are uncalled for, and can prejudice low courts." [12]

Human rights and the environment

Jaising has represented the victims of the Bhopal tragedy in the Supreme Court of India in their claim for compensation against the Union Carbide Corporation. Jaising also represented Mumbai residents who were facing eviction. Jaising has been associated with several Peoples Commissions on Violence in Punjab to investigate the extra judicial killings, disappearances and mass cremations that took place during the period 1979 to 1990. The United Nations appointed Jaising to a fact-finding mission investigating the alleged murder, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state. [13]

A keen environmentalist, Jaising has also argued major environmental cases in the Supreme Court. [14]

Lawyers Collective

In 1981, Jaising founded the Lawyers Collective with her husband Anand Grover. The organisation is devoted to feminist and left-wing causes, especially the promotion of human rights. She later became the founder secretary of the Lawyers Collective, an organization that provides legal funding for the underprivileged sections of Indian society.[ citation needed ] She founded a monthly magazine called The Lawyers, in 1986, which focuses on social justice and women's issues in the context of Indian law. She has been involved in cases related to discrimination against women, the Muslim Personal Law, the rights of pavement dwellers and the homeless and the Bhopal gas tragedy. She has fought against child labor, for the economic rights of women, estranged wives and domestic violence cases. The NGO currently has had its license suspended for violating the FCRA norms. [15] [16] [17]

Other

Jaising has attended several national and international conferences on women and represented her country at these conferences. Her NGO has been barred by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) from receiving foreign funds. The NGO Lawyers' Collective has had their license suspended for violation of foreign funding norms. [18] [19] [20] However, the Bombay High Court passed an order to defreeze NGO's domestic accounts; the case continues in the Supreme Court [21]

She had a fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London and has been a visiting Scholar at the Columbia University New York.[ citation needed ] She was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. She was conferred with the Rotary Manav Seva Award in recognition of her services to the nation in fighting corruption and as a champion of the weaker sections of the society. [22] [23]

Jaising was given the Padma Shree by the President of India in 2005 for her service to the cause of public affairs. [24] Her husband Anand Grover is a human rights lawyer and designated senior advocate of the Supreme Court. [25] In 2018, she was ranked 20th on the list of 50 Greatest Leaders of the World by Fortune magazine. [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ram Jethmalani</span> Indian lawyer and politician (1923–2019)

Ram Boolchand Jethmalani was an Indian lawyer and politician. He served as India's Union Minister of Law and Justice, as chairman of the Indian Bar Council, and as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

The Best Bakery case was a legal case involving the burning down of the Best Bakery, a small outlet in the Hanuman Tekri area in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, on 1 March 2002. During the incident, mob targeted the Sheikh family who ran the bakery and had taken refuge inside, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people. This case has come to symbolize the carnage in 2002 Gujarat riots that followed the Godhra train burning. All the 21 accused were acquitted by the court due to shoddy police work and issues with evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teesta Setalvad</span> Indian activist and journalist (born 1962)

Teesta Setalvad is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Gujarat riots</span> Sectarian violence in the Indian state

The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence or the Gujarat pogrom, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is cited as having instigated the violence. Following the initial riot incidents, there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population of Gujarat for the next year.

Mary Roy was an Indian educator and women's rights activist known for winning a Supreme Court lawsuit in 1986 against the inheritance law prevalent within the Syrian Malabar Nasrani community of Kerala. The judgement ensured equal rights for Syrian Christian women as with their male siblings in their ancestral property. Until then, her Syrian Christian community followed the provisions of the Travancore Succession Act of 1916 and the Cochin Succession Act, 1921, while elsewhere in India the same community followed the Indian Succession Act of 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Githa Hariharan</span> Indian writer based in New Delhi (born 1954)

Githa Hariharan is an Indian writer and editor based in New Delhi. Her first novel, The Thousand Faces of Night, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the best first novel in 1993. Her other works include the short story collection The Art of Dying (1993), the novels The Ghosts of Vasu Master (1994), When Dreams Travel (1999), In Times of Siege (2003), Fugitive Histories (2009) and I Have Become the Tide (2019), and a collection of essays entitled Almost Home: Cities and Other Places (2014).

The Mathura rape case was an incident of custodial rape in India on 26 March 1972, wherein Mathura, a young tribal girl, was allegedly raped by two policemen on the compound of Desaiganj Police Station in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. After the Supreme Court acquitted the accused, there was public outcry and protests, which eventually led to amendments in the Indian rape law via The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Men's rights movement in India</span>

The men's rights movement in India is composed of various independent men's rights organisations in India. Proponents of the movement support the introduction of gender-neutral legislation and repeal of laws that are biased against men.

Lawyers Collective was a non-governmental organization in India which promotes human rights, especially on issues relating to women's rights, HIV, tobacco, LGBT and parliamentary corruption in India. On 1 June 2016, Govt of India suspended the registration of the NGO under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA) for alleged violation of FCRA norms. This revoking of the license was challenged in the Bombay High Court and the case is currently pending. The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report on 13 June 2019 relating to charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, false statement made in declaration and various sections under the FCRA and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Anand Grover is a senior lawyer known for legal activism in Indian law relating to homosexuality and HIV. Along with his wife Indira Jaising, he is a founder-member of the Lawyers Collective. He was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health from August 2008 to July 2014. He is currently and acting member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lotika Sarkar</span> Indian feminist, educator and lawyer

Lotika Sarkar was a noted Indian feminist, social worker, educator and lawyer, who was a pioneer in the field of women's studies and women's rights in India. She was a founding member of Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), Delhi, established in 1980, and also Indian Association for Women Studies, established in 1982. Starting in 1951, she taught law at Faculty of Law, University of Delhi till 1983, and also remained the head of the law faculty; thereafter she taught at Indian Law Institute. She was the first Indian woman to graduate from Cambridge University, and later in 1951 she also became the first woman to receive a PhD degree in law from the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinky Anand</span> Indian lawyer

Ravinder "Pinky" Singh Anand is an Indian lawyer and politician. She has served as an Additional Solicitor General at the Supreme Court of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010</span> Act of the Parliament of India

The Foreign Contribution (regulation) Act, 2010 is an act of the Parliament of India, by the 42nd Act of 2010. It is a consolidating act whose scope is to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or associations or companies and to prohibit acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. It is designed to correct shortfalls in the predecessor act of 1976. The bill received presidential assent on 26 September 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shabnam Hashmi</span> Indian social activist and human rights campaigner

Shabnam Hashmi is an Indian social activist and human rights campaigner. She is the sister of Safdar Hashmi and Sohail Hashmi. Safdar Hashmi was a communist playwright and director, best known for his work with street theatre in India.

Abha Singh is an Indian activist and advocate currently practicing in the High Court of Judicature at Bombay. Her activism has focused on women's rights, gender equality, and justice.

Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani is a former Indian judge and prosecutor, who last served as the chief justice of the Madras High Court. Previously, as a judge of the Bombay High Court, she notably upheld the conviction of several persons for the rape of a pregnant Muslim woman during the 2002 Gujarat riots, chastising investigative authorities for their inaction in the matter, and also refused parole for those convicted in the 1993 Bombay bombings. She retired in 2019, after refusing to accept a controversial transfer from the Madras High Court to the Meghalaya High Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rahul Kamerkar</span> Indian lawyer and author (born 1990)

Rahul Kamerkar is an Indian lawyer and author.

Pushpa Virendra Ganediwala is an Indian lawyer. She was previously an additional judge of the Bombay High Court, but resigned in 2022, after the Supreme Court of India took the unusual step of refusing to confirm her appointment to the High Court as permanent, after she delivered several controversial judgments concerning cases of sexual assaults against women and children.

Bindu Ammini is an Indian lawyer and lecturer at Government Law College, Kozhikode, and a Dalit activist. She is one of the two first women between the age of 10 and 50 to enter the Sabarimala Temple after a Supreme Court of India decision allowed women of reproductive age to enter the temple.

Nupur Sharma is an Indian politician. She was the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) until June 2022. She frequently represented BJP on Indian television debates as an official spokesperson. In June 2022, she was suspended from the party due to her comments about Muhammad and the age of his third wife, Aisha, at the time of their marriage and the consummation of the marriage as well her comments on other central doctrines in the Islamic tradition.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Indira Jaising (India)" (PDF). United Nations Human Rights - Office of the High Commissioner. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  2. Mohan, Rohini (9 January 2017). "Narendra Modi's Crackdown on Civil Society in India". International New York Times: NA–NA.
  3. "Indira Jaising". Fortune. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  4. Rajagopal, Krishnadas (3 March 2018). "Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising in conversation with Krishnadas Rajagopal". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  5. Manthan. "Triple Talaq – Indira Jaising". Manthan India. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  6. "The landmark Mary Roy case in SC, which gave Syrian Christian women equal right to property". The Indian Express. 1 September 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  7. Scroll Staff (5 June 2017). "Watch: Rupan Deol Bajaj talks about the sexual harassment case she won against KPS Gill". Scroll.in. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  8. Fernandes, Joeanna Rebello (12 July 2015). "It's sad we needed the law to tell us that the mother's a natural guardian: Githa Hiraharan". Times of India . Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  9. "Jaising Leads Protest Against Setalvad's 'Victimisation'". Outlook India.
  10. "In the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2018.
  11. Krishnan, Murali (25 July 2016). "Supreme Court v. Indira Jaising: Supreme Court admits no Rules for Senior Designation but process 'fair and transparent'". Bar & Bench.
  12. "Supreme Court's refusal to club all FIRs against Nupur Sharma is bad in law". 16 July 2022.
  13. "Indian rights lawyer to lead U.N. probe into Rohingya crackdown". Reuters. 30 May 2017.
  14. Reed, John (16 February 2024). "'Modi is supposed to represent all of us': human rights lawyer Indira Jaising". Financial Times. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  15. "Indira Jaising's NGO 'Lawyers Collective' suspended for 6 months". 1 June 2016.
  16. PTI (1 June 2016). "FCRA licence of Indira Jaising's NGO suspended for 6 months". The Economic Times.
  17. Correspondent, Special (June 2016). "Indira Jaising's NGO loses licence". The Hindu.{{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  18. "Indira Jaising's NGO barred by MHA from receiving foreign funds for 6 months". 2 June 2016.
  19. "MHA cancels FCRA licences of 1,300 NGOs". Rahul Tripathi, ET Bureau. Economic Times. Economic Times. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  20. PTI (7 December 2016). "Home Ministry cancels licence of Indira Jaising's NGO". The Hindu.
  21. Correspondent, Special. "Defreeze accounts of Indira Jaisingh's NGO: HC". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 February 2017.{{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  22. "Indira Jaising, Additional Solicitor General to deliver first UN Public Lecture on 25 November in New Delhi". UN Women – Asia-Pacific. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  23. "Anand Grover". The Global Commission on Drug Policy. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  24. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  25. Sharma, Padmakshi (13 September 2023). "Manipur: Petitioners Tell Supreme Court That Lawyers Aren't Willing To Appear For Them Due To Threats". www.livelaw.in. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  26. "In a First an Indian Lawyer Makes It to Fortune's World's Greatest Leaders List: Indira Jaising Ranked 20 in the List on a Day She Faced Setback from SC". 19 April 2018.