Concubine, mistress, dutiful wife: Supreme Court's guide on what not to call women

The Supreme Court has launched the ‘Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes’, with an aim to stop the usage of language in legal judgments that ‘inadvertently’ promote biases. The guidebook also explains how judges’ stereotypes impact judicial decision-making Acknowledging the gender biases in legal language, the Supreme Court on Wednesday released “Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes.” Words such as prostitute, hooker, whore, dutiful/good/faithful wife, housewife, keep, mistress, slut, faggot have been flagged by the apex court in this guidebook that aims to stamp out stereotypical language. She also opened up about remarks on her “short haircut” previously made by a judge in the Madras High Court. In June 2020, a Karnataka High Court judge said while granting anticipatory bail to the accused that it is “unbecoming of Indian women” to go to sleep after being “ravished”. As per The Leaflet, in another case of divorce, a court once said, “A wife should be minister in purpose, slave in duty, Lakshmi in appearance, Earth in patience, mother in love and prostitute in bed.” The apex court judges in a verdict have referred to a woman in a live-in relationship as a “keep”.