The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the use of male pronouns in certain provisions of the Constitution of India [Harsh Gupta v. Union of India]. .A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha took a poor view of the plea filed by a law student, expressing its inclination to impose costs. "Why do not you study in law schools rather than filing such petitions? We have to start imposing costs...you want us to strike down male pronouns in the Constitution? Chairman etc usage... we have to strike down constitutional provisions since it does not say Chairperson...even a woman can be appointed," the CJI remarked. ."We will impose costs.. focus on your studies. You have so much time", Justice Narasimha added. .The issue raised in this PIL was also recently addressed in Parliament. In March, Odisha Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Sulata Deo asked, based on the recent introduction of the “she/her” pronouns while referring to all genders in the Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022, whether the government plans to rework the existing pronouns in the Constitution of India.Then Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju replied that drafting of legislation in line with the government’s philosophy of empowering of women is an evolving and innovative practice and that no proposal to rework the Constitution was under consideration at present.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the use of male pronouns in certain provisions of the Constitution of India [Harsh Gupta v. Union of India]. .A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha took a poor view of the plea filed by a law student, expressing its inclination to impose costs. "Why do not you study in law schools rather than filing such petitions? We have to start imposing costs...you want us to strike down male pronouns in the Constitution? Chairman etc usage... we have to strike down constitutional provisions since it does not say Chairperson...even a woman can be appointed," the CJI remarked. ."We will impose costs.. focus on your studies. You have so much time", Justice Narasimha added. .The issue raised in this PIL was also recently addressed in Parliament. In March, Odisha Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Sulata Deo asked, based on the recent introduction of the “she/her” pronouns while referring to all genders in the Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022, whether the government plans to rework the existing pronouns in the Constitution of India.Then Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju replied that drafting of legislation in line with the government’s philosophy of empowering of women is an evolving and innovative practice and that no proposal to rework the Constitution was under consideration at present.