Shalu Nigam | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Indian |
| Education | Ph.D., MA Social Work, LLB |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Known for |
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Shalu Nigam is an Indian lawyer, feminist legal scholar, and author. She was the petitioner in the landmark case Shalu Nigam v. Regional Passport Officer, decided on 17 May 2016, which held that passports can be issued without requiring the name of the father.[1]
Shalu Nigam is a lawyer,[2] feminist legal scholar and author. She is a TEDx speaker.[3]
Her books include Domestic violence in India: What one should know? (a resource book), Women and Domestic Violence Law in India: A Quest for Justice, Domestic Violence Law in India: Myth and Misogyny and Dowry is a Serious Economic Violence: Rethinking Dowry Law in India. She also co-authored The Founding Mothers: 15 Women Architect of the Indian Constitution. She is a contributor to Countercurrents.org[4] and the South Asia Journal.[5]
Nigam has graduated from the Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi. She received her LLB from Delhi University, and a degree in MA in Social Work from Jamia Millia Islamia. She also obtained her doctorate in Social Work from Jamia Millia Islamia. The topic of her research was "Changing doctor-patient relationship with special reference to the consumer protection act,1986"[6]
Her post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for Women's Development Studies was supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.[7]
She has also been associated with and served as a Secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Delhi.[8][9] She started her career working with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Delhi office. Previously, she has worked with the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi on legal literacy, gender sensitization, legal awareness, legal research, training of para legals, training of trainers on human rights, prison reforms, and legal aid, besides preparing legal modules, training manuals, booklets and other training material[10]
Nigam has been cited for her expertise on issues related to the rights of women, including legal and other protections for survivors of domestic violence,[11][12] Battered Woman Syndrome,[13] the right of self-defense,[14] marital rape law,[15][16] property rights,[17] caste and the status of women,[18] backlash against women's rights in the COVID-19 era,[19] and the increase in violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic.[20] She has also been cited for her advocacy related to education in India.[21][22] She is also known for her work on lawyers' dress[23][24] vaccine equity[25][26] and on transparency in governance[27]
In April 2018, she joined the group of lawyers in Delhi who took out a silent protest march demanding that the lawyers in the Kathua rape case in Jammu and Kashmir who stood for the accused should be punished by the cancellation of licenses.[28]
In 2020, she was one of over 600 activists, lawyers and academics who called for the release of Sudha Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen,.[29] On 15 July 2020, she joined other lawyers and wrote to the Chief Justice of Patna High Court regarding the treatment of survivors of violent sexual crimes in the Araria District Court.[30]
In July 2021, Nigam joined 900 individuals and groups condemning and calling for action against hate speech and misogyny directed at Muslim women online.[31][32] In August 2021 she joined over 650 women's rights activists and others who have denounced Union minority affairs’ minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s decision to commemorate the criminalisation of instant triple talaq as ‘Muslim Women’s Rights Day’.[33] In November, 2021, she joined over 200 eminent citizens, including professors, civil servants, journalists and prominent activists who wrote an open letter to the Chief Justice of India, to draw his attention to the pending status of key matters in Supreme Court, covering issues from sedition, farm laws, Citizenship Amendment Act, electoral bonds among others.[34]
In February 2022, she joined legal academics, lawyers, and students to write an open letter against the Karnataka High Court judgment that denied entry to young Muslim women wearing the hijab in the educational spaces.[35] In May 2022, she joined a group of academics and professionals to write a letter to the Chief Minister of Delhi against demolition carried out in Jahangirpuri resettlement colony in Delhi[36] In June 2022, she joined 300 citizens and wrote to the Chief Justice of India against the arrest of activist Teesta Setalvad and RB Sreekumar[37]
Her daughter was born on 24 August 1997, and raised by Nigam, who had divorced her biological father.[38] According to Nigam, her child was rejected by her father because she is female.[39][38] In 2005 and 2011, Nigam was able to obtain a passport for her daughter without providing the name of her father, but at the next renewal, the computer application required it.[38] Nigam brought a case to the Delhi High Court based on a violation of the right of her daughter to determine her name and identity.[39][38] Nigam also asserted an injury to her daughter, if she was required to record the name of her father, due to the nature of the rejection by her father.[40]
The Regional Passport Office (RPO) attorney argued RPO regulations forbade the removal of the name of a parent due to divorce, and argued it was an established legal principle that the dissolution of a parent-child relationship could only occur due to adoption.[41] The Court found no legal requirement for the inclusion of the name of the father and directed that the computer software be changed to allow the issuance of the passport without requiring the name of the father.[38] In its 17 May 2016 decision, the Court also stated, "This court also takes judicial notice of the fact that families of single parents are on the increase due to various reasons like unwed mothers, sex workers, surrogate mothers, rape survivors, children abandoned by father and also children born through IVF technology."[40][41]
After advocacy by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi to Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj about the need to amend the passport rules for single women, a panel was created in July 2016 to debate and recommend changes, and its recommendations to ease the requirements were informed by the case.[42] In December 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs announced new passport rules based on the panel recommendations, including to allow only one parent to be listed in the application.[43][44]
Several scholars have noted the impact of the case on the rights of women in India.[45][40]