ABSTRACT
From the promulgation of the Indian Constitution until today India's jurisprudence concerning sex equality has fluctuated among: overt discrimination; formal equality; and substantive equality. This chapter presents a synopsis of the history of gender equality jurisprudence in Independent India, beginning with excerpts from gender equality discourse during the Constituent Assembly debates. The speeches, resolutions and debates in India's Constituent Assembly reflected the extent to which equality was one of the key ideals at the founding of independent India. The early years of equality adjudication in the Supreme Court of India (SCI) were preoccupied with the formal equality question of who is alike such that equal treatment is required under the Constitution. The 1970s saw a number of innovative developments in Indian constitutional jurisprudence. These innovations included the four developments discussed below, all of which have implications for equality adjudication. Recent jurisprudence interpreting the impact of the equality clauses on statutes which discriminate on the basis of sex has been diverse.