Justice Dinesh Maheshwari Inaugurates Conference On Sensitization Of District Court Judges On Gender Justice In Lucknow

A 2 Day Conference on "Sensitization of District Court Judges on Gender Justice and Differently Abled Victims/Survivors of Sexual Abuse" was organized by Judicial Training & Research Institute, U.P. Lucknow on 23rd & 24thh July, 2022 in which about 225 Judicial Officers including District Judges from various districts participated.

The conference was inaugurated by Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Judge, Supreme Court of India in the presence of Justice Rajesh Bindal, the Chief Justice, Allahabad High Court, Justice Sunita Agarwal, Judge, Allahabad High Court & Chairperson, Committee for Sensitization of Family Courts, Justice Ramesh Sinha, Senior Judge, Allahabad High Court at Lucknow, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, Judge, Allahabad High Court at Lucknow & Chairman, Supervisory Committee, JTRI.

The conference was organized to sensitize the participating Judges in the matters involving sexual violence against women and girls with disability, gender inequality, gender stereotypes, and gender injustice, the value of the testimony of the disabled prosecutrix, intersectional lengths to evaluate how multiple sources of oppression, victim compensation, restorative justice, and witness protection. 

Justice Maheshwari's address

Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, who inaugurated the event said that human beings have 5 senses which are external sense organs, but most important sense are the internal sense of organs of human beings. He said that the internal sense organs allow us to know the power of foresight, confidence etc.

While addressing the participating Judges, Justice Maheshwari appealed to Judges to focus on the power and utility of the internal organs and repose the greater confidence in internal sense ability or conscience.

"Judicial Officers have to establish a fine balance in their approach and they should neither be too compassionate towards the litigants nor should be devoid of compassion...justice should not be 'litigant centric' but it should be 'cause centric', which means the Judges are doing justice for a cause not for a party. The 'cause being justice', which is the ultimate purpose of judicial institutions," he said.

Justice Rajesh Bindal, Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court address

The Guest of Honour of the inaugural session, Justice Rajesh Bindal pointed out the fact that the girls have outnumbered boys in recently declared results of class-10th and 12th and their past percentage is also higher than that of boys.

He further stressed that we live in a state where Rani Laxmi Bai fought the battle for independence while holding her son in her lap but,he added, our daughters cannot be successful unless we are supported by the family and society.

"It is remarkable that our daughters are getting the support of their family but they are not receiving the society. It is therefore, our pious duty that as a member of society, we must provide required support to our daughters," the remarked.

Further, he also pointed out that the pendency of cases in the U.P. shows that people are not getting justice on time. It was his view that if any maintenance application is not decided on time, it would be equivalent to not delivering justice.

While mentioning the differently abled victims and witnesses, Justice Bindal said that no definite data is available in this regard but these matters need to be taken up with utmost sensitivity.

Justice Ramesh Sinha, Senior Judge, Allahabad High Court at Lucknow said that such conferences and workshops educate us more than they educate the general public and that we should try to get the maximum benefit out of this conference.

On this occasion, Justice Sunita Agarwal, Judge, Allahabad High Court & Chairperson, Committee for Sensitization of Family Courts said that women do not need to be worshipped rather they need the realization of their existence. "They can make their own place in society and they are capable of doing so," she said.

While welcoming the Guests, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, Judge, Allahabad High Court at Lucknow & Chairman, Supervisory Committee, JTRI said that we should develop a culture of respecting women and we should also imbibe a culture of equality in our society. Justice Upadhyaya also said that what we need to change in our mindset and suggested that we should come together to break gender stereotypes.