Women Need To Be Respected More Than They Are To Be Worshipped: Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyay

Delhi High Court's Chief Justice, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay, on Tuesday said that women need to be respected more than they are to be worshiped.

“That would be my request to all present here. In the society, at various forums, we keep on talking about gender justice, gender related issues. For addressing such issues, First of all, what every single member in the society needs to do is to change the very mindset,” he said.

Chief Justice Upadhyay was speaking in an event organized by Delhi State Legal Services Authority to celebrate the International Women's Day at S Block auditorium of the Delhi High Court.

Supreme Court judge, Justice K.V. Viswanathan was the Chief Justice of the event. Others present were Justice Vibhu Bakhru (Executive Chairman, DHCLSC), Justice Rekha Palli and other judges.

Two projects namely Virangana (enrolling women from marginalised communities as para-legal volunteers) and Vaani, both DSLSA's initiatives, were also launched in the event.

“I feel very happy to be part of this function being organized not only to commemorate the International Women's Day, but also we are launching today, or from 8th of March, our new project called virangana. I compliment the Delhi state Legal Services Authority, the member secretary, all others associated with it to have conceived the project and launched it. I think it will go a long way so far as the women causes are concerned,” Chief Justice said.

He said further: “Now, if anyone sitting here asks me about my age, I would easily say I'm 50, 59-60 years of age. But actually, in fact, I am 2000 plus 59 years of age. The reason is that whatever has undergone in these 2000 years in this society, I carry this baggage with me, and therefore with the changing society, with the changing terms in the society, if you have to reach out to the women and remove the gender related inequalities and other kinds of injustices, we need to shun whatever baggage we carry, baggage of 2000 years behind our own growth.”

Chief Justice Upadhyay said that even though injustices against women are prevalent in the society and keep on happening in our presence, we remain, many a times, in a denial mode.

According to him, the denial mode has to be shunned. We have to come out of it, recognize the problem, and then only we'll be able to sort it out, he said.

“And this denial mode happens only because we carry a baggage. We all hail from a very different backgrounds, different backgrounds of our education, different backgrounds of our society where we are born, different background of our schools. Every one of us comes from a different culture. We speak different language, different dialects of the same language. So that needs to be first of all addressed, that we have to change our mindset only then we will be able to achieve the gender justice, or we'll be able to remove all kinds of injustices based in the society on gender,” he said.

Furthermore, the Chief Justice said that the International Women's Day is a result of a concerted effort by all women demanding their rights. He said that there have been various stages of women's movement in the international arena, and the recognition of International Women's Day and celebration should not remain as a ritual alone.

“Apart from this, I am very happy to note that we in our society have a legislation like State Legal Services Authorities Act. The function of the Legal Services Authorities Act is not only to provide legal aid, it is helping the society in various other manners. It is reaching out to the people, to the needy, not only who are in need of legal aid, but even otherwise. It is even helping the government to take the schemes to the actual beneficiaries in many ways,” he said.

“So on this occasion, while expressing my happiness to be part of this function today in the celebration of International Women's Day and also complimenting the Delhi state Legal Services Authority to have undertaken so many projects, I must compliment, congratulate and wish that the new project initiated by Delhi state Legal Services Authority virangana and vaani shall go a long way with the help of all those who are associated with the legal services in the state of Delhi,” he concluded.