Gender and Sexuality

Beyond mere Recognition: The Jane Kaushik judgment and the next frontier of transgender equality

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court acknowledged the dignity and rights of employment of transgender individuals, ordered monetary compensation for a transwoman teacher who had been terminated from her position, and ordered that a model Equal Opportunity Policy be made mandatory in all institutions, going further than the Constitution's promise of equality in private employment

One woman against a thousand superstitions, Birubala Rabha’s battle against the superstition of ‘Witch-Hunting’

Though this pioneering feminist activist breathed her last on May 13, 2024, her work with the Thakurvilla Mahila Samiti and Missiom Birubala has been recognized internationally and May 13 has been declared Anti-Superstition Day in Assam

Rape is aggression, domination, consent must be instant specific, not dictated by morality tests: Bombay High Court

In a landmark judgement delivered on May 6, Maksud Gaffur Sheikh v. State of Maharashtra, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay HC reaffirmed the legal sanctity of continuing and specific consent and rejected character assassination of survivors/victims in rape trials

Nainital on communal edge after 75-year-old Muslim man booked for alleged rape of minor girl

Communal tensions flare in Haldwani, Nainital after a 75-year-old Muslim man is booked for alleged rape of a minor, a BJP leader and right-wings’ ultimatum targeting Muslim-run businesses sparks communal tensions in the state, leading to attacks on shops, staff, and a mosque, while police inaction persists despite video evidence, and no FIR is filed against the perpetrators of the violence and assault

Beed to Delhi: Lawyer beaten in Maharashtra, judge threatened in Delhi—what the path for justice means for women practioners in today’s India

From a brutal assault in rural Maharashtra to death threats in a Delhi courtroom, the message is chillingly clear: women who uphold the law are not safe

Extremists assaulted Muslim woman; hijab stripped of in broad daylight in Bengaluru and Muzaffarnagar

Two shocking incidents of moral policing and harassment involving members of the Muslim community emerged this week. In Muzaffarnagar, a Muslim woman was assaulted and forcibly stripped of her hijab, while in Bengaluru, a young woman was harassed for being in an interfaith relationship with a Hindu man. Both incidents, captured on video, highlight a disturbing rise in intolerance and moral policing, particularly targeting interfaith relationships

When Courts Fail Survivors: How patriarchy shapes justice in sexual offence against women cases

The Supreme Court critiques multiple High Court judgments for perpetuating misogynistic notions and trivialising sexual violence and child trafficking through legally flawed and insensitive reasoning

Women in remote villages mobilise to check fast spread of alcoholism

Due to a combination of factors, there has been...

Surviving Communal Wrath: Women who have defied the silence, demanded accountability from the state

On Women’s Day 2025, March 8, we honour the survivors who became warriors - documenting atrocities, challenging power, and demanding justice in the face of unspeakable brutalities

IMSD condemns the assassination of the world’s first openly gay Imam

“No God, gods, goddesses, prophets or saints may be invoked to justify the killing and/or terrorising of fellow human beings”.

When marriage is tyranny: Justice Shakdher’s judgment reads down the marital rape exception as a constitutional imperative

In contrast to the verdict delivered by Justice Hari Shankar, his brother judge hearing the matter, Justice Shakhder’s judgement in the May 2022 case hearing the constitutional challenge to the exception to marital rape provision under Section 375, strikes it down as anti-constitutional. The matter will now go before the Supreme Court where the constitutional challenge lies pending for two years

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The Orchestrated Extremism: An analysis of communal hate speech in India’s election cycle (2024–2025)

This piece uncovers the rise of digital warfare—from caste-coded AI videos in Bihar to calls for the economic segregation of vendors—detailing the calculated strategy to fracture society and weaponise Dalits against Muslims to divert attention from joblessness and poverty

Communal Profiling at Malabar Hill, CJP’s files complaint with Maharashtra Police and NCM

The complaint to Maharashtra Police and the NCM details how a former BJYM office-bearer allegedly conducted unauthorised identity checks and singled out vendors on religious grounds

Massive duplicate entries in Mumbai voter rolls trigger political uproar; opposition flags “fraudulent patterns” and pressures SEC for action

With more than 10.6% of Mumbai’s electorate appearing multiple times in the SEC’s draft rolls—some duplicated over a hundred times—the Opposition alleges targeted tampering in their strongholds, raises alarm over rising “elected unopposed” patterns, and demands urgent corrective action and extended scrutiny

‘They Have a Right to Be Heard’: Supreme Court suggests Union brings back alleged deportees from Bangladesh “at least as a temporary measure”

Top Court questions the Union’s resistance to repatriation, stressing that individuals asserting Indian citizenship cannot be expelled without enquiry, hearing, or due process — as both Indian and Bangladeshi courts find the June 2025 deportations unconstitutional and improperly executed

A New Silence: The Supreme Court’s turn toward non-interference in hate-speech cases

The Court’s refusal to monitor rising hate-speech incidents marks a decisive shift from its earlier activist stance, exposing contradictions between judicial pronouncements, institutional capacity, and the lived realities of targeted communities

Israel, United States & and other complicit entities guilty of genocide, ecocide, and forced starvation in Palestine: International People’s Tribunal

After two days of intense hearings, coincidence of in-person and online testimonies, the Tribunal delivered its verdict to the world and found the US, Israel, UK, Germany, France, Hungary, The Netherlands and others guilty of ecocide and forces starvation of the Palestinian people

‘Designed to Exclude’: The ongoing enumeration phase of the SIR

In a multi-state report on the hasty and ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process being conducted by the ECI, the PUCL has, echoing what opposition parties and other civil rights groups been stating, called it ‘designed to excluide’

The Deadly Deadline: “I Can’t Do This Anymore”—India’s electoral revision turns into a graveyard for BLOs/teachers

From consuming poison in Uttar Pradesh to hanging in West Bengal, the ‘Deadly Deadline’ of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) triggers a suicide wave among teachers and Anganwadi workers, employees’ unions cry 'institutional murder' while families mourn loved ones broken by state pressure