In a stunning and deeply disturbing incident at the Court in Delhi, a convicted lawyer hurled a verbal threat at a woman judge — the very figure responsible for upholding the law he had just been found guilty of violating.
His words: “Tu hai kya cheez? Bahar mil.”
Translation? “Who do you think you are? Meet outside and see.”
This wasn’t just a moment of disrespect. It was a moment of naked intimidation — and it happened inside a courtroom.
Contempt? Or Something Far Worse?
This is more than contempt of court. It’s a blatant attempt to assert dominance over judicial authority using the language of menace. It is a threat made not just against one judge, but against the entire judiciary — and particularly against women within the judicial system. This isn’t just a question of individual conduct; it’s a reflection of a deeper malaise that has crept into the corridors of justice.
A courtroom is meant to be a sanctuary of order and rule of law — a space where the Constitution speaks louder than muscle or misogyny. If a judge, robed in authority, is threatened in her official capacity by a convicted man inside her courtroom, it exposes a far more terrifying truth: the erosion of institutional respect.
A Gendered Undercurrent We Cannot Ignore
It is impossible to ignore the gendered nature of this threat. Would the same threat have been made to a male judge, in the same way, with the same audacity? This was not merely about power — it was about gender, and the refusal to accept a woman in authority delivering accountability.
We often speak about women’s safety in public spaces — but what happens when the threat exists in one of the most powerful institutional spaces, wielded against a woman holding one of the highest roles of legal authority?
The System’s Silence is Deafening
What’s even more unsettling is the lack of systemic urgency. Was immediate legal action taken? Was the threat met with outrage, or worse — with quiet tolerance? Every moment of institutional silence in the face of such behaviour sends a message: that threats can be normalised, that women in power are fair game, and that courts are no longer sacred.
This cannot be our norm.
A Wake-Up Call for the Judiciary and Beyond
This moment must serve as a wake-up call — not just for the judiciary, but for every legal institution, law school, and bar council across the country. We must ask ourselves:
- Are our courtrooms safe for those who serve justice?
- Are we equipping our judges — especially women — with the protection they need?
- Are we drawing clear, uncompromising lines about what behavior the legal community will no longer tolerate?
Because if we don’t respond now, decisively and publicly, we risk watching the gavel fall — not as a symbol of justice, but as a symbol of its vulnerability.
A Moment of Reckoning
This isn’t about one lawyer or one judge. This is about the climate we are enabling. A climate where arrogance trumps accountability, where gendered violence seeps into even the most fortified institutions, and where being “routine” and “lawful” is no longer enough to keep one safe.
If a woman judge isn’t safe in her courtroom, what protection does any woman have outside of it?
It’s time we stop shrugging. It’s time we start shouting, because justice cannot afford to whisper when it’s being threatened face-to-face.
- NGarg
Law And Policy 