CLPR Broadcast | July 2021 - Centre for Law & Policy Research

The Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making the Constitution work for everyone through law and policy research, social and governance interventions, and strategic impact litigation.

Introducing Intersectionality Course at NUJS

CLPR delivered the course titled “Introducing Intersectionality” in June at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. This course seeks to question our understanding of discrimination, transforming it from the treatment of individuals as people of a single identity into those who take into account the multi-faceted experience of oppressed identities at their various intersections of caste, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Taught by Vikramaditya Sahai, the course employs academic and legal writings, commentaries, personal narratives, and cultural texts to understand how intersectionality affects our study of the law, advocacy, and activism. Link to the course curriculum and readings.

Sangama & Anr v. State of Karnataka

In a memo filed before the Karnataka High Court, the State government submitted that the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms proposes to amend the Karnataka Civil Services (General Recruitment) Rules, 1977 for providing 1 % reservation to transgender persons in State services. This direction came from the Court while hearing the petition filed by Sangama, a human rights organisation. In this case, an impleadment application was filed by Jeeva, an LGBTQI trust, represented by Senior Advocate Jayna Kothari.
The case is listed for 20th July 2021. Read the petition & order here.

CLPR Blog

We published four blog posts in June. The first asks questions about forms of solidarity that are imagined by and towards feminist politics in the wake of the recent controversy around transphobic statements by Kamla Bhasin. The second examines the different challenges arising from COVID-19 for the LGBTQI+ community and recommendations to the government to mitigate the situation. The third points out the shortcomings of India’s child adoption framework in the wake of the second wave of COVID-19. The fourth argues that India’s commitments to international treaties form the basis for a new Equality Law.

Publications and News

Jayna Kothari’s opinion piece titled, ‘Recognising caste-based violence against women’ appeared in The Hindu. She argues that the recent Supreme Court judgment in Patan Jamal Vali v. State of Andhra Pradesh missed an opportunity to use the concept of intersectionality to uphold the conviction under the Prevention of Atrocities Act (PoA) 1989. Despite highlighting the need for an intersectional approach that takes into account multiple marginalities faced by the victim, the Supreme Court failed to set a larger precedent recognising caste-based violence against women. Read more.

Constitutionofindia.net

In June the Constitutionofindia.net team put out two desk briefs. The first alerted readers to a recent case in the Gujarat High Court that challenged the State’s alcohol prohibition law by invoking the right to privacy. The second looked at H.V. Kamath’s interventions in the Constituent Assembly attacking the Constitution’s emergency provisions; June 2021 marked the 76th anniversary of the proclamation of emergency in India.

Additions to our Constituent Assembly member biographies include T.M. Kalliannan Gounder, reportedly the youngest member of the Constituent Assembly who passed away recently, and Dr. Jivraj Narayan Mehta, a prodigious medical talent who was Gandhi’s physician in London and later became Gujarat’s first Chief Minister.

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