Objectionable “Holi Milan” Celebrations: The Letter To New Delhi Bar Association And Persisting Objectification Of Women In Indian Legal Ecosystem

March 8 is globally celebrated at the Women’s Day and while there are hundreds of articles and marketing gimmicks which float about women and their rights around this day, it originally aims at acknowledging the movements of women rights and their struggles over time for basic rights and equality. While the women around us have fought and won the fight for universal female suffrage and have broken several glass ceilings, their misfortune refuses to leave them when it comes to a workplace dominated by their men counterparts. Such is a plight of women lawyers in India when it comes their cruel and misogynistic objectification in their field.

This year the festival of Holi and the women’s day fell on the same day and as the fate would have it, a Holi celebration was organised by the Delhi Bar Association. This celebration stood for everything women’s day is against. The celebration saw women dancers being called to grace the occasion dressed in demeaning clothes and performing steps on item songs. What seems to be shocking here is that this event was hosted in the premises of Patiala House Court. To be fair, an event like this by any bar association or in any court premises is shameful but what put feather on the cap of this one is the irony of it all considering the date an occasion.

A letter has been sent to the president and office bearers of New Delhi Bar Association called the event totally inappropriate, sexist and unbecoming of lawyers. It also said that the event was in very poor taste considering that merely a kilometre away at the Supreme Court of India the Chief Justice of India have been talking about encouraging the participation of women in legal profession.

But this is not the first time an event like this has been conducted at the cost women’s dignity. An event of the same nature had been conducted in March 2014 as well which makes us think as to how far have we really come, if at all? Nor is this an isolated or a rare event, several such developments attacking the integrity of women lawyers have taken place from time to time. 

In October last year a notice was put up by a Pune Court which read- 

“It is repeatedly noticed that women advocates are arranging their hair in open court, which is disturbing functioning of the court. Hence, women advocates are hereby notified to refrain from such act.” 

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising had tweeted about it saying- “Wow now look! Who is distracted by women advocates and why”

The tragedy of the notice was that while laughable like a meme, it encompasses the true conditions under which women around the world have to work and while legal profession is supposed to be an exception, it most certainly is not.

Stepping aside from these shameful acts, what is even more devastating is the fact that several district courts around the country do not have basic sanitisation facilities for women lawyers. Sometimes there is a broken door or a broken basin while sometimes there is no availability of water or regular cleaning facility. What stands to be even more relevant are the doors of male washrooms which hang open and further add to the menace. The non availability of infrastructure of women washrooms stands reaffirmed by the 2019 study by Vidhi.

If we look in a separate direction, while the number of women advocates is rising gradually there remains an alarming disparity of gender in the judiciary. While there are several high courts without any woman judge , there are some with only one or few. This scarcity of women representation in judiciary also remains to be a concern

It needs to be understood that this discussion has not even revolved around discrimination faced by women lawyers or the pay gap or a proper work life balance but even those factors remain to be forgotten as the fight here is for basic decency. 

Views expressed by the author are personal