3 Landmark Cases for Access to Justice

Landmark Indian Judgments

Following are the three cases which had brought a tremendous change in the Indian legal system of our country. They are explained as follows-

NIRBHAYA CASE

This is one of the landmark cases of our Indian society which has led to bringing many changes to our legal system of our country. On 16 December 2016, there has the heinous gang-rape of the girl which shocks the nation. A 23 years girl was raped and was assaulted very badly and was thrown out of the bus by 6 men. Out of the 6 men arrested one of them was a juvenile and other 5 were the adults. All have got the 10 years of the imprisonment and out of the 5, one of them found dead in the jail. So after some time the juvenile was of the age of 17 years and was sent to the correction facility for three years and after some time those 3 men were given the death penalty by the Delhi high court.

So this case mainly led to the amendment in the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 by lowering the age of the juvenile from 18 to 16 years of the age. And after such a heinous crime which took place in our country the Centre and the State, both have taken various steps to improve the condition of Indian society.

SHAH BANO BEGUM V. MUHAMMAD AHMED KHAN

In this case, the Shah Bano was the mother of the 5 children and she took the divorced from her husband Muhammad Ahmed Khan at the age of 62. So she demanded the alimony which was against the Islamic system of law. The government also favoured the husband in this case. So after that keeping her health and old age, the Supreme Court gave the order in favour of the Shah Bano maintaining the secularism and the maintenance of the women. This led to the amendment of Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code. So this case has also brought the big change for our Muslim women as now they can also demand maintenance after the divorce.

KM NANAVATI V. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

In this case, KM Nanavati was a 34 years old man married to a woman named Sylvia. They also had children of their own. Nanavati was the naval officer. So he used to live far away from the home. So his wife started talking to a few of her friends and after some time she had got a very good friend named Prem Ahuja. She also had sexual intercourse with that person in the absence of her husband. So after sometime when her husband returned home she confessed in front of him that she had fallen in love with Prem Ahuja. So Nanavati went to Prem Ahuja and asked him whether he will marry Sylvia and whether he would take care of the children. So Prem Ahuja refused to do. So in anger, Nanavati shot three bullets and then he died. This was the open case and finally, the jury gave the decision in favour of the Nanavati. So at last, Bombay High Court overruled the above judgement of the jury and declared Nanavati guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He got out of prison after 3 years. So from this case, the jury system was abolished and was one of the landmark cases which changed the legal system of our country.