New Delhi, Dec 3 (PTI) Former additional solicitor general and senior advocate Madhavi Divan on Tuesday underscored the imposition of emergency was the "most obvious" and "egregious echo of colonial repression".

She was speaking at "Decolonisation: Supreme Court Judgments and the Indian Constitution" organised by the Adhivakta Parishad of the Supreme Court to celebrate Constitution Day 2024.

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Divan said decolonisation meant reclaiming the country's history and culture, being a process of restorative justice through cultural, economic and psychological freedom to achieve indigenous sovereignty.

"I would extend it to the eradication of a slavishly subservient mindset of people cultivated over centuries of subjugation; the process of undoing a deeply ingrained sense of inferiority, a lack of self-belief that permeates our people," she said.

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The senior advocate said that facets of the colonial rule were still present in the legal system.

"There are laws that continue, even new laws that have been introduced, how they have been used and abused as an instrument of tyranny against whom the system is meant to serve. There is a certain subservience, if I may call it, an excess of obsequiousness, a continuing 'maai-baap' culture that we have not been able to shake ourselves out of," Divan said.

She said ancient India, even at the very pinnacle of its greatness, was never a coloniser, but captured the minds and sensibilities of people in far away lands through the sheer might and power of its ideas.

"I have made a mention of the emergency, which is the most obvious and egregious echo of colonial repression. And as we know, the powers to impose an emergency were essentially copied from the Government of India act of 1935 and as we know, our courts at the time did not stand up for us."

The senior advocate said the courts evolved subsequently and became people-friendly in the 1980s with the start of the PILs, taking up issues for the poor, downtrodden, voiceless and the marginalised.

This could be regarded in a sense of "judicial penance" for the role played during the emergency, she said.

Divan said several forms of status quo still existed from the colonial era in the legal system, such as the laws of sedition, criminal defamation and the contempt of the court.

"There is this provision, this, this expression, which occurs repeatedly. It occurred in the Indian Penal Code (IPC); it occurs even in the new criminal law. It is about outraging the modesty of a woman (or) insulting the modesty of a woman. Now, this concept of modesty, it's again, a very Victorian-era expression, and I think it does a great disservice to women," she said.

The senior lawyer said the universal civil code was meant to erase disparities, particularly for women, who would probably be its greatest beneficiaries on the issues of marriage, divorce and inheritance.

"Likewise, the manner in which minority institutions have been treated by particularly the Supreme Court. It is problematic because while you want to enable minority institutions to flourish, it should not be at the cost of majority institutions. It can't become a punishment. There can't be such excessive restrictions on majority institutions, so much so that people are vying with one another to find some kind of minority status," added Divan.

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