The event, organised by the Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee of the Supreme Court for a belated celebration of International Women’s Day, the First Woman Chief Justice to Become Smt. BV Nagarathna during her speech put a light on the Woman Safety in our Country. 

In her speech, she said - 

“I remembered when I was moving a matter on March 8 in one of the years when I was an advocate, a judge had said, please allow the lady to move the matter first because today is women’s day. My retort was that every day should be women’s day. The spirit of this celebration is not to be restricted to one day in a year; it is for all days to come, 24 by 7, 365 days. What we women are asking is not some kind of a pedestal in society. What we are asking is for equal treatment, and not to be demeaned, whether it is in the workplace, at home, or on public streets.”

Justice Nagarathna, also spoke about the need to be tough on sexual harassment in the workplace, since it is the right to livelihood. She said even though the right to equality was a constitutionally consecrated fundamental right, until the landmark judgement in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, (1997) 6 SCC 241, in which the Supreme Court of India issued guidelines and norms for preventing and redressing sexual harassment in the workplace, “women never had a voice with regards to sexual harassment”.

Further, she added that women had the Supreme Court to thank for this judgement, which paved the way for the enactment of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

She further added: “Many women may not be permitted to work outside because of the prevalence of an unsafe atmosphere at their workplaces. Therefore, it is everyone’s duty, and particularly of the Supreme Court, to ensure that there is safety for women in India.”

“On this occasion, let us all jointly affirm our commitment towards creating inclusive and gender-sensitive workplaces for women. So that the essence of Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution is preserved and our nation is able to effectively tackle all frontiers of gender equality, not just restricted to what is stated in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.”