Revision summary
Articles 14, 15(1) and 16 bar sex discrimination; Article 15(3) allows special provisions for women. Directive Principles 39 and 42 and duty 51A(e) set the social-economic frame. Articles 243D and 243T reserve seats for women in local bodies; the 106th Amendment extends reservation to Assemblies and the Lok Sabha after delimitation. Vishaka, Independent Thought, Joseph Shine, Shayara Bano, Vineeta Sharma and Babita Puniya are the main case-law pillars. The constitutional perspective is formal plus substantive equality.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Gender justice in the Constitution is both equal citizenship and special measures to correct historic disadvantage. The text in Part III, Part IV and the local-government chapters, read with the Court’s equality cases, is the perspective; social practice is still catching up.
Body
Equality and non-discrimination
- Article 14 guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the laws; gender justice uses it against arbitrary sex-based classifications.
- Article 15(1) bars discrimination on grounds only of sex; Article 15(3) expressly allows special provisions for women and children, which is the constitutional basis of affirmative action, not a contradiction of equality.
- Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment; reservations and special recruitment for women rest on this cluster with Article 15(3).
- Article 15(4) and later 15(5) and 15(6) address caste and educationally weaker groups; women inside those groups need the sex and the caste lenses together.
Directive Principles, duties and political space
- Article 39(a) and 39(d) direct equal right to livelihood and equal pay for equal work; Article 42 directs just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.
- Article 51A(e) makes it a fundamental duty to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.
- Articles 243D and 243T reserve seats for women in Panchayats and municipalities, which is the strongest textual guarantee of political presence below the State legislature.
- The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, inserts reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, to operate after a census and delimitation; it is the Union-level completion of a demand that the 73rd and 74th Amendments had already met locally.
Personal liberty, dignity and the family
- Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997) used Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21, and CEDAW, to lay down workplace sexual-harassment guidelines until the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
- Independent Thought v. Union of India (2017) read down the marital-rape exception for wives between 15 and 18, aligning the Indian Penal Code with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
- Joseph Shine v. Union of India (2018) struck down the adultery offence as treating the woman as property of the husband.
- Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017) held instant triple talaq unconstitutional; Parliament then enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.
- Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) held that a daughter is a coparcener by birth under the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, which is statute read in a gender-just way.
- Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya (2020) and Lt. Col. Nitisha v. Union of India (2021) opened permanent commission and struck facially neutral but discriminatory army criteria.
- Indian Young Lawyers Association v. State of Kerala (2018) on Sabarimala used freedom of religion against exclusion of women of a certain age; review remains pending, which shows that gender justice and essential religious practice still collide.
Perspective
- Formal equality (same rule for all) is the Article 14 starting point; substantive equality (Article 15(3), reservations, maternity, harassment law) is the second.
- The Constitution therefore does not treat gender justice as charity. It treats it as equal citizenship plus correction of structural sex inequality.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD G[Gender justice] --> E[Arts 14 15 16] G --> S[Art 15(3) special provisions] G --> P[Arts 243D 243T] E --> C[Vishaka Joseph Shine Shayara Bano] S[S] --> C[C]
Conclusion
Constitutional gender justice is Articles 14, 15(1) and 15(3), 16, 39, 42, 51A(e) and local-body reservation, applied in Vishaka, Shayara Bano, Joseph Shine, Vineeta Sharma and the military-commission cases. The perspective is equal citizenship with special measures, not a choice between the two.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Account for the legal and political factors responsible for the reduced frequency of using Article 356 by the Union Governments since mid 1990s.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2023 · Q13). View answer →
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Does Article 15(3) violate equality?
No. It is an express exception that permits special measures so that equality in Article 14 becomes real for women and children.
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Is workplace harassment only a statutory issue?
The 2013 Act is the statute. Vishaka had already derived the duty from Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 when no statute existed.
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