New Delhi, Dec 6th : Justice D.Y., a Supreme Court judge, has been appointed.Chandrachud on Monday said the privileged members of the society must break free from the shackles of the past to respect and recognise members of the marginalised communities.
Delivering the 13th B.R.The 13th B.R.was delivered by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in South Asia.He spoke on Monday about the Ambedkar Memorial Lecture.
It addressed “Conceptualising Marginalisation: Agency, Assertion, and Personhood”.He said that love and concern are prerequisites for self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem.
These three forms would allow marginalized communities to claim holistic personhood, despite their continuous state of depletion.He stressed the need for a shift towards inclusiveness and a transformation.
“It is necessary that the privileged members of the society break free from the shackles of the past, and confer respect and recognition to the members of the marginalised communities,” he said.
Justice Chandrachud said though providing protective rights to the members of the marginalised community is empowering since it furthers internalisation, it is in itself insufficient to confer personhood.
It is vital that we celebrate and recognize their identities and provide opportunities for them to exercise agency.The process of ‘othering’ and exclusion must be put to an end,” he said.
He further added that the presence of multiple such rights in the Constitution has not always led to a positive change in the society’s perception of marginalised groups and the individuals who belong to them.
Citing duality in the Indian constitution, Justice Chandrachud said Articles 15(1) and (2), and Articles 16(1) and (2) recognise that individuals may be identified as belonging to a certain group due to their religion, sex or caste, amongst others.
“Further, it acknowledges that this membership or perceived membership may be the basis on which they are discriminated against.It then declares such discrimination unconstitutional,” he said .
He also highlighted that untouchability, a particularly severe form of discrimination, has been specifically declared unconstitutional by Article 17.He said that Article 17 specifically declares unconstitutional the very worst form of discrimination, untouchability.”Such mobilisation should not be considered as ‘politics of identity’ but as a necessary means for redressing historical discrimination,” he added.
Justice Chandrachud also pointed out that the members of the marginalised communities can also be institutionally humiliated not merely by using the tool of law but also by establishments that further a conducive environment for discrimination and humiliation to be perpetuated.
“Even if a discriminatory law is held unconstitutional by the Courts, or is repealed by the parliament, the discriminatory behavioural pattern is not immediately overturned,” he said.
He added the personhood conferred to members of the marginalised groups would be diminished unless we recognise and abolish, in spirit, the unequal power structures which facilitate humiliation.
“I cannot think of any such instance where an individual was granted personhood by the law and society.Personhood has always been vested in groups or classes: the Blacks and women, the Dalits, Tribes, the homosexuals, and the women.These groups were granted diminished personhood at some point in the history of mankind,” he said, citing that personhood is thus never granted to or taken away from one individual.
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