A Tale of Two Judgments: Gendered Reasoning of the Acts of a Married Woman in India

Abstract

Criminal Law is preoccupied with persons who commit acts as an accused and fixes criminal responsibility on such persons based on principles such as the reasonable man test. However the acts of the accused may be contingent on the acts of others including the victim such as providing consent or abetment to the accused. Due to prevalent patriarchal norms of socially acceptable behaviour of the respective genders, particularly in cases involving married women as the accused and victim, considerable influence on the decision making capacity of the courts occurs which is reflected in the ‘reasoned’ judgments of these courts. With the progress of time and attempts at relooking at the locus of women in society, courts are expected to be sensitive to the acts of such women. The paper critically relooks at two particular judgments of the acts of the married women therein as an accused and victim to raise the fundamental issue of gender sensitivity of the criminal justice system in India.