Justice Dies Every Day in the Courtrooms

 

The death of a client is always difficult. But when that death also marks the quiet burial of justice, the loss feels deeper, more systemic, more damning. That is true when the litigant is a woman who has been fighting for justice for a long time. 

Recently, I lost a client. She had been fighting her case for over two decades. She was a seasoned journalist—dignified, articulate, and principled. She had joined a prominent media company many years ago, only to face a fate that countless working women still endure in silence: sexual harassment by senior management.

From Courage to Punishment

Unlike many, she refused to be silenced. She chose to speak up, file a complaint, and challenge those in power. This occurred long before the # MeToo movement. Additionally, at the time, the POSH law had not been enacted.

But the misogynist environment persisted, and instead of receiving protection or support, she was punished. The company suspended the victim, while the perpetrators retained their positions. It was a clear act of institutional retaliation.

She took the matter to the labour court. After a long and difficult legal battle, the court ruled in her favour. It directed the company to reinstate her and pay her full back wages. The judgment validated her ordeal and reinforced the principle that justice, though delayed, could still be delivered.

Weaponizing the Legal Process

But the company had no intention of complying. Instead, it filed an appeal before the High Court—an appeal not grounded in strong legal arguments, but in a delay strategy. Over the years, the management's legal team employed every procedural tactic available to stall the case.

They filed extensive documents—not to clarify the matter, but to create complexity. They sought repeated adjournments, frequently citing trivial or manufactured reasons. When that wasn't enough, they filed an application to summon records from the labour court, further slowing proceedings.

This wasn’t litigation. It was legal suffocation.

A System That Outlives the Victims and Survivors 

Meanwhile, my client aged. Time, stress, and uncertainty took their toll. She refused to accept the company’s meager compensation offers—insulting amounts meant to silence, not settle.

But justice never arrived.

She died while the case was still pending.

No reinstatement. No compensation. No closure. Just a thick case file buried somewhere in the High Court registry—another statistic in a system that too often allows the powerful to outlast the powerless.

The Broader Failure

This case is not an anomaly. It’s a symptom of a larger malaise within our judicial process. While courts remain the last resort for the oppressed, they have become too accessible for those seeking only to delay, dilute, or derail justice.

Procedural laws intended to ensure fairness are routinely weaponized. Adjournments are granted too freely. Cases involving vulnerable litigants are allowed to linger until those litigants no longer remain alive to see the outcome.

In this system, justice doesn’t just get delayed—it gets destroyed.

Conclusion: A Call for Urgency

As legal professionals, we must ask ourselves—how many more must die waiting? How long can we accept this as “just the way it is”? The law is meant to protect, to remedy, and to deter—not to become an instrument of exhaustion.

With the death of my client, a woman who fought bravely for her dignity and rights, a small piece of justice also died. But let it not be in vain. Let it serve as a call to reform the system, to restore efficiency, compassion, and urgency to our courts.

Because justice that arrives too late is justice denied—and, all too often, justice buried.

Why has the process of justice become particularly difficult for women survivors, especially in cases of sexual harassment, assault, or discrimination?

Why do the Indian courts fail to recognize the dynamics of SLAPP suits? 

Millions of women are fighting for justice. Despite facing various odds such as the high cost of litigation, difficult access to justice, social stigma, societal pressure, the fear of losing their job, and so on, the women are striving hard. And yet, the courts, the legal system, and society failed them. This is tragic. Why has the system failed to recognize the odds that women survivors face?