Real democracy rests with the people, they say. Who are the people then. Flowing from the recent tryst with the election commission, my idea about democracy is it should be real representation of the people. Representation of the masses. Representation of the downtrodden. Representation of those who cannot earn and play with big money. And not to forget the representation of this species called women. A woman who is still not financially independent. I am not mentioning about the select few who have made their mark. I would have argued before today that the real power now vests both with men and women, and yes, the transgender if I may use the word without anybody taking offence to its usage. But today was a day when I had to think what a dilemma some, or rather, most woman have to face, even today. How much a woman deals with a situation when she has to make choices. This was a call from my friend from Hyderabad who sought suggestion from me as a lawyer as to what would be the fate of a particular woman, who was her friend be, after a verdict which is going to come up.

Her husband had left her five years back to stay with another woman. The woman brought up her two children alone without any financial support. She wants nothing now but some monthly maintenance from her husband to take care of her two kids. Her maternal home had abandoned her. Her husband has left her to the fate. What would she do to the kids and herself. Its all so easy for us lawyers to deal this only as another case. But does anybody question the reason why she wants to stick to her husband who never cared for her. Why in spite of the torture she was subjected to she wants him back in her life. Why she is ready to bear another few years of pain with a devil. Its the financial dependence of the woman in this country and to a big extent, almost in all countries where women still have a long way to go in terms of independence.

A statement made by the President of the Woman’s wing of a  political party just as recently as this Tuesday clearly points to the fact that women are not being able to be represented in a democracy because of the use of money in political campaigns. Money which is easily begotten in case of men who control resources, and those women who come from rich families, but that which a common middle class or a poor woman cannot receive from any source. Money is required even for getting into politics. If women are kept aloof from the political process, then where is the representation. I must say, not even the voters make a good representation until the woman of the house comes out and votes. Now if women are left to the mercies of their husbands or men in general, how can they be represented. Where is the democracy which calls for real representation. A democracy by its very nature then becomes a weak democracy. It then becomes a democracy only for a few. And to some it remains a dictatorship.

One might argue that the law takes care of this. I hear from one prominent Professor of JNU that 62 per cent of economy in our country is black economy. these funds are unaccounted for. Where is the law? We need a proper legal framework, not only to eradicate this evil of corruption in politics, but also to ensure that financial dependence does not hamper the aspirations of the scores of women who could get into and be part of the political structure of our democracy. A democracy which then becomes a strong, real democracy. And which will always uphold the rule of law.

A verdict on a juvenile criminal, a day writing a legal report and the night now, reflecting on what law means to me. In a country where there are scores of people who are ignorant of what is in store for them, there are a plenty debating on how to sail through in this ocean of laws. Laws which have meaning to some, and to some only a red letter. On the one hand there are those who know laws. On the other for whom ignorance of law is no excuse. Coming from a family where there are no law makers, I can understand what law means to a common man. I am a lawyer. But I cannot forget what law means to me as a person whose mother kept fighting on the courts of law for her promotions and pay fixations, whose father always respected these people called lawyers, and what today I am. Coming back to the juvenile’s case who got freed today, I wonder what age, time and intelligence we perceive of when we allow people to go free after committing a crime. Law has its loopholes. No doubt. Regulations are a plenty. There are open slits from which escapees can pass through. Law has its limitations. And ambiguities. While ambiguities can be interpreted for justice, the limitations bind the hands of the judges. They cannot go beyond what the law is. Law is the verdict of the masses. Period. The Indian Penal Code, for example, has been the child of a plethora of minds which worked together to form a legal framework for persons and entities committing crimes. Entities. Yes. Because Corporations can commit crimes too. However they cannot be punished with physical confinement. So is a child who is not an adult in the eyes of law. A child criminal has to be reformed. That is the idea of law. Intent of a child cannot be gauged merely by coupling the actus reus written in the section on the statute book. Statutory crimes are an example of how intention is not essential for committing certain crimes. On the other hand, crimes with intentions are exempted for those for whom the policy of the State is different from the others. Children who are criminals as a matter of policy have to be treated differently. And a crime like this should not prompt policy makers to change the reformist approach used in criminal law to a punitive one. Hard cases make bad law. Period. However again, according to latest research a child’s brain is developing faster than to have previously thought. A child of 14 is more mature than a child of 14, 20 years back. He or she knows the consequences of the act.

Now let me tell this from the perspective of the victim. I remember the day when she left this world to another world where she could forget her pain. Yes she was in pain. And my eyes wept. And wept. So did everybody I knew. For once she had become the daughter and sister of a nation with high crime records. Perhaps the offenders were the only people who did not weep. They were those who did not think twice before that gory rape. I get goosebumps thinking of what Nirbhaya must have gone through on that ominous night. Who will not. We all have been witness to what happened. And her friends, her mother and her father too, for whom there was light at the end of the tunnel in the form of justice. Justice in reality. Justice by bringing the culprits to greater punishments than what law could inflict. Justice by seeking sympathy of the judges. Justice in true color. However, law is one thing and justice another.