Sex Equality under the Constitution of India: Problems, Prospects and Personal Laws

Abstract

It is undertaken to give women of oppressed religious minorities equal rights under the Indian constitution and international law by family law. The sameness and difference predominating the legal model of equality criticized around the world. An alternative model that addresses dominance and subordination ordinary hierarchy is developed and illustrated through discussion of India's jurisprudence at the Supreme Court. An inability to adapt this pattern to family law is established, and the difficult question of ensuring a new approach to gender equality rights for Muslim women is suggested under the "special laws' of India. The conventional legal approach to equality that comes from the West is used mainly across the world. A promising alternative that is gaining popularity can already be found implicit in the Indian constitutional equality tradition at its highest, as well as in some Western equality legislation. This alternative has great potential for advancing social equality for women by law, including addressing the complicated political and legal questions raised by Indian family law, called "personal rules."