Air India, a state-owned company, required female flight attendants to retire under three circumstances: (1) upon reaching 35 years of age, with possible extensions up to 45 at the Managing Director’s discretion (2) upon getting married within the first four years of service, or (3) upon first pregnancy. In Air India v.
In Ali v. State & Ors the Delhi High Court struck down the court’s gate pass policy that required photo ID and justification for entry. It held the policy unconstitutional for violating the open court principle under Indian procedural law by limiting access to listed litigants or those inspecting records. The Court found the rule disproportionately burdened vulnerable groups, including the poor, women, and children, and risked denying access to justice.
Amit Sundra v. Sheetal Khanna was a domestic violence case under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. The Delhi High Court vacated a stay the husband had obtained on a Magistrate Court’s order allowing the wife to reside in the marital home and receive monthly maintenance.
A father alleged that his son-in-law had kidnapped his daughter. The daughter showed that she was of age and had married of her own free will. The court held that a family can have no control over who an adult chooses to marry.
In the case Association for Social Justice Research v. Union of India, a public interest petition was filed after an 11–12-year-old girl was allegedly married off by her father to a much older man. When the girl was found and medically examined, her age was assessed to be between 16 and 18. She told the Court she had married voluntarily and denied any money was exchanged.
In the case Bachcha v. State of U.P., a man took a six year-old girl into his house, removed her clothes and masturbated until he ejaculated on her stomach. The prosecution charged that he was found in the act of raping the girl, but the medical evidence showed that he could not have done so. The Court held that he could be found guilty of an "offence to modesty," which the Court defined as any action that would be shocking the sense of decency of a woman.
In Bachpan Bachao Andolan v. Union of India & Others, the non-governmental organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan petitioned the Supreme Court of India to address the use of child performers in traveling circuses. A study revealed that children were being trafficked from Nepal or taken from their homes, forced to work as child laborers, and subjected to mental, physical, and sexual abuse.
A woman was kidnapped and gang-raped by four men who were in a financial dispute with her father. Although the police dismissed the complaint as fabricated due to the ongoing litigation, the victim filed a private complaint. The Supreme Court of India held that the father's disputes with the accused were not sufficient to discredit the victim’s consistent and medically corroborated testimony, and upheld the convictions.
A husband stabbed his wife in the abdomen during a sudden quarrel, leading to her death. He was convicted under Section 302 IPC (murder) and sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court. He appealed the sentence, claiming that the record clearly establishes that he only delivered a single blow to his wife in a sudden quarrel, and therefore conviction under Section 302 is not proper. His appeal was dismissed by the High Court.
