Abstract:
On September 1, 1916, India reported that a “Bengali lady” had made “the latest attempt” to “break her birth’s invidious bar and get within the defences of a strictly guarded profession”.1 The Bowser guarded profession referred herein is the legal profession and this “Bengali lady” is Regina Guha. Regina Guha, after obtaining her Law Degree in the year 1916, had submitted an admission application to be enrolled as pleader in the Alipore District Court which was then forwarded to the Calcutta High Court on April 3, 1916. The issue-in-hand was to determine the true construction of relevant laws in force and whether they were “large enough” to include women as practitioners in a court of law to which the Court responded in negative.2 Five years later, the issue was brought into the forefront yet again by Sudhansu Bala Hazra before the Patna High Court but suffered an identical fate.3 The Court, however, now saw the silver lining in the change of circumstances as the means to amend the law paving way for the Legal Practitioners (Women) Act, 1923. This entire flounder allowed Indian women to legally enter into the profession but the notional changes it tended to bring have not been able to achieve their full potential yet. This paper, thus, deals with the developments over the years and the role Regina Guha still plays in shaping the feminist jurisprudence in the country.
Speaker:
Manasvi Sharma, BA LLB Student, Maharashtra National Law University, Aurangabad
The author, Ms. Manasvi Sharma, is a third year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student from India. She is pursuing her degree from the prestigious Maharashtra National Law University, Aurangabad. A University topper for the past academic years, she has, from an early stage in her studies, found a voice to support and talk about women-oriented issues from the socio-legal aspect as desires to spread her work to different corners of the world. Her aspiration led her to present her work titled “Nyaya in India in 21st Century – How Pramana has defined the Feminist Jurisprudence in India through the Years” in the Symposium on ‘Critical Approaches to International Law’ held at Griffith College, Dublin, Ireland in August 2019.
She has done several internships in the High Courts and Tribunals of India to understand the practical nuances of her field of study which has in turn given her a chance to understand the reality of the position of women in the courts of her country. She hopes to continue working in this area and connect the struggles of women of not only India but the Global South to the rest of the world.
1 Jhuma Sen, The Indian Women Who Fought Their Way Into the Legal Profession, The Wire (Feb. 13, 2019), https://thewire.in/law/women-lawyers-history-india.
2 In Re: Regina Guha, 1916 (24) CLJ 382.
3 In Re: Sudhansu Bala Hazra, 64 Ind. Cas. 636.