Sudhanshubala Hazra
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Lawyer, Educator
Known forFighting for women's rights to enroll as lawyers in India
ParentAmbika Charan Hazra (father)

Sudhanshubala Hazra was an Indian lawyer, who fought a notable case and campaign to enable women in India to enroll as lawyers. She was the adopted daughter of Madhusudhan Das, a lawyer, politician, and Indian independence movement leader, and the sister of noted educator and politician Sailabala Das.

Life

Sudhanshubala Hazra's parents were Bengali Christians. Her father, Ambika Charan Hazra, was a friend of Madhusudan Das, a lawyer, politician, and Indian independence movement leader. Hazra's daughters, Sudhanshubala and Sailabala, were adopted by Das after Hazra's death.[1]

Career

Hazra initially began her career as a teacher, becoming the headmistress at Ravenshaw Girls' School in Cuttack while attending evening classes to earn her law degree.[2] In 1917, she applied to sit for the Bachelor of Law exam at Calcutta University, which had previously allowed Regina Guha and Hannah Sen to sit the exam and earn their Bachelors in Law. She was not permitted to do so as she had not studied in Calcutta, and her application was transferred back to Patna University, which also declined to allow her to sit the exam. In 1919, she was ultimately permitted to sit the exams in Calcutta University, and she qualified in 1920.[2]

In 1921, Hazra filed a petition before the Patna High Court, seeking permission to be enrolled as a lawyer under the Legal Practitioners Act 1879. A previous petition filed by Regina Guha in the Calcutta High Court on similar grounds had failed. Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court had differed on this, allowing Cornelia Sorabji to enroll as an advocate. Hazra cited the example of Sorabji, as well as the recently enacted British Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, to persuade the court to allow her to enrol. However, the Patna High Court ruled in In Re Miss Sudhansu Bala Hazra that they were bound by the Calcutta High Court's reasoning, and the term 'person' in the Legal Practitioner Act did not include a "female". They accordingly barred her from enrolling.[2][3][4]

Hazra's sister and father, Sailabala Das and Madhusudhan Das, and lawyer and writer, Hari Singh Gour assisted her in initiating a campaign to allow women to enroll as lawyers, beginning with a successful petition to the Privy Council.[2] In 1923, the Legal Practitioners (Women) Act was passed and Hazra enrolled as a lawyer in Patna.[2] Hazra later published a memoir of her life, titled Woman at Law.[5]

Additional Reading

References

  1. ↑ Chand, Somarani (February–March 2016). "Madhusudan Das and Women Uplift" (PDF). Odisha Review: 42–47.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Indian Women Who Fought Their Way Into the Legal Profession". The Wire. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  3. ↑ Mishra, Saurabh Kumar (15 December 2015). "Women in Indian Courts of Law: A Study of Women Legal Professionals in the District Court of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India". E-cadernos CES (24). doi:10.4000/eces.1976. ISSN 1647-0737.
  4. ↑ Mossman, MaryJane (6 June 2020). "Cornelia Sorabji (1866–1954): a pioneer woman lawyer in Britain and India". Women's History Review. 29 (4): 737–747. doi:10.1080/09612025.2019.1702791. ISSN 0961-2025. S2CID 213366627.
  5. ↑ जैन, Arvind Jain अरविंद (12 June 2019). "No place for women in temples of justice". Forward Press. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
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