Running Around

You realize you have been converted into a runner when the first thing you pack when you are traveling abroad, are your running shoes and clothes. 

On a recent conference trip to Florence last week I packed my running gear and promised myself that I would run by the beautiful Ponte Vecchio. Sure enough on my last day, I woke up bright and early on a Sunday morning and started out at 6.30 am blindly through the streets of central Florence. My beautiful run showed me a side of the city that I did not expect. I saw the underbelly of beautiful, picturesque Florence that Sunday early morning - the beer bottles strewn on the central streets from the previous night’s excesses, Bangladeshi souvenir street vendors were already setting up their stalls outside the Duomo, the homeless were on the streets eating food they had managed to lay their hands on and young boys on the street still drunk from the previous night. This is not the beautiful Firenze that the guide books tell you about. 

My morning run gave me access to the heart of the city - it showed me how under the guise of a picturesque tourist destination, Florence was a city like any other and struggling with own share of problems, of poverty and homelessness and  immigrants eking out a living. It was a city where I saw its residents hard at work. Local municipality employees cleaning up the city before people were out on the streets, young cafe staff preparing for the breakfast customers they were expecting in a couple of hours, and roadside vendors putting up their wares. I also saw other runners, and we nodded and acknowledged each other as we passed. I saw a bride and her bridesmaids, in complete finery, with her photographer trying to catch the perfect ray of sun light for a pre-wedding shoot over the Ponte Vecchio. Florence seemed so much more real that Sunday morning.

Women in the Supreme Court

I have just returned from a wonderful experience of arguing before a constitutional bench in the Supreme Court! Without doubt, it was one of my most exciting, nerve-racking and exhilarating experiences. This was in the recent challenge to the Right to Education Act where several private school managements had challenged the amendments to the constitution under Article 15 (5) and 21(A) as being violative of the basic structure of the constitution.

My first thought was, 'whoa!' Am i going to take on basic structure arguments? I hadn't even read Keshavananda, Minerva Mills, Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narrain completely in college.  We filed our intervention application with great confidence and started attending the hearings. It was a great bench, with at least 3 out of the 5 judges being extremely active and opinionated, constantly attacking counsels with questions. It was fabulous. I totally loved being in the court taking notes and nodding my head vigorously in agreement every once in a while, usually when one of the judges made an astute observation. The who's who of the senior counsels appeared in the case, both for the petitioners and for the government, which was defending the constitutional amendments.

As the hearing was nearing closure, my confidence slowly started to wane. All the bigwigs had argued  - Rajeev Dhavan, Mukul Rohatgi, Rohinton Nariman, Anil Divan, Mohan Parasaran, Andhyarujina, Arvind Datar and K.V. Vishwanathan, and as I feebly stood up and mentioned to the Bench that I appear for an intervenor and would like to make some submissions, I was quickly shot down by a judge that there may not be time for an intervenor to make any submissions! It was a nervous two hours for me before the day ended, as I was unsure if I would get an opportunity to argue,  if I would be allowed to argue, whether I would make any decent submissions and if I had indeed taken he right decision to go ahead myself and not advise my client to take a well-known senior counsel.

The clock struck 4 pm and my turn did not arrive. But as I went back to our hotel that evening, I made up my mind that having come this far, I was not going to go back without fighting for my turn. I had spent several days in Delhi, and the hearings brought back sharply my memories of my first year of practice in the Supreme Court. The absolute hierarchy in the courts of senior counsels and lowly juniors. And of course the junior women lawyers - the ones who would invariably be asked by male senior counsels to get up and give up their seat as a matter of right. Will I, a junior lawyer, a woman, a non-Delhi-ite, even stand a chance? While I was nervous, I was also determined to not let go without having an opportunity at making my arguments, something that me and my entire team and worked so hard at preparing. So I hit the books once again all evening, night and early morning till I was mumbling the phrases of Justice Mathew,  J. Chandrachud and Justice Bhagwati's judgements in my sleep. Woke up next morning and put on my secret weapon - electric blue eye-liner to put me into battle mode (it always works!) and set off for the court.

In court, I occupied a seat right in the front row. Surprisingly this time no one asked me to get up or even move! I waited for one of the senior counsels who was continuing his arguments from the previous day, to finish.  As soon as he was done, I took the stand. The judges reluctantly agreed to hear me. As I started by handing over my written submissions and arguing my case, I really took off getting totally into my zone.  The bench was initially surprised as to who this woman was, who dared to venture into issues about the basic features of the constitution and horizontal application of rights - but they warmed up quickly and started asking questions, and I could see some of the other senior counsels by my side nodding their heads in agreement. I had my day and said all that I wanted to and made a serious impact.

While we anxiously wait for the judgement, there is immense satisfaction that me and my team did something in March 2013 in the supreme court before a constitutional bench, what some people might say is unheard of - we were a team of 5 out of which 4 were women, all under the age of 40 (barring me, the rest under the age of 30), non-supreme court lawyers, non-senior counsels, the only woman arguing competently a serious constitutional challenge, in a court room of male judges and only male senior counsels arguing. Yes, you can bring about social change in the Supreme Court.