Supreme Court to launch ‘Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes,’ which will be available on its website shortly

Today, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud announced that the Supreme Court will upload a ‘Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes’ shortly on its website. He also mentioned that the Supreme Court prepared the handbook for identifying and removing the use of words and phrases loaded with gender stereotypes in judgments and court language. CJI said “This is to assist judges and the legal community to identify, understand, and combat stereotypes about women in legal discourse. It contains a glossary of gender unjust terms and suggests alternative words and phrases which may be used while drafting pleadings as well as orders and judgments. It is for lawyers as well as judges”. He added, “This handbook identifies common stereotypes by women, many of which have been utilized by courts in the past, and demonstrates why they’re inaccurate and how they may distort the application of the law. The intention is not to criticize or cast doubts on judgments but merely to show how stereotypes may unwittingly employed. To raise awareness against the utilization of harmful stereotypes, particularly those against women, the handbook aims to explain what stereotypes are”. 

CJI further explained that “It helps judges identify and avoid such stereotypes by first- identifying language which promotes gender stereotypes and offering alternative words and phrases; two, identifying common reasoning patterns based on gender stereotypes, particularly about women. And three, highlighting binding judgments of the Supreme Court which have rejected these stereotypes”. Yesterday (August 15) on the occasion of the 77th Independence Day, the CJI made an announcement while hosting the tricolor at the sprawling SC lawns to release a Handbook Combating Gender Stereotypes which will be available on the Supreme Court website shortly. While making this announcement, the CJI said that he was thinking about the subject for quite some time. 

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