Regina Guha

Regina Guha (died 1919) was an Indian lawyer and teacher. In 1916, she fought a notable case challenging the interpretation of legal provisions that effectively prohibited women from practicing law in India.[1]

Regina Guha
Regina Guha circa 1913
Born
Regina Guha
Died1919
Kolkata, East Bengal, British India

Life

Regina Guha was born to Pearay Mohan Guha (a lawyer) and Simcha Gubbay, a Baghdadi Jewish woman.[1] Her father later converted to Judaism as well, and Regina and her three siblings were raised in the Jewish faith. Regina and her sister Hannah, studied law. Her sister, Hannah Sen, went on to become a teacher, and politician.[1][2][3]

Career

Regina completed her Master of Arts in 1913, earning a first class degree, and standing first in her class.[2][4] She went on to earn a law degree, the Bachelor in Laws in 1915, from Calcutta University. She then applied to be enrolled as a pleader (lawyer) in the Alipore District Judge's court, but her application was rejected on the grounds that women were not permitted to enrol. Regina challenged this decision at the Calcutta High Court, arguing that the governing legislation, The Legal Practitioner's Act, allowed qualified "persons" to enrol as lawyers, and that the definition of 'person' included women. She was represented by Eardley Norton, a lawyer and member of the Indian National Congress.[1][5][2] A bench of five male judges of the Calcutta High Court ruled, in the case of In Re Regina Guha, that although the governing law, the Legal Practitioners Act 1879, used the term 'person' in regard to enrolment, this term did not include women.[6][7] They accordingly denied her the right to enroll as a lawyer.[8]

Guha went on to become the headmistress of the Jewish Girls' School in Kolkata, and was the first Jewish principal of the school.[2]

Guha's case was similar to comparable litigation fought at the time in the United Kingdom and USA, in Bebb vs Law Society and Bradwell v Illinois.[1] It was followed in India by a second unsuccessful petition when Sudhanshubala Hazra challenged the prohibition against women practitioners in the Patna High Court.[5] In 1923, the enactment of the Legal Practitioners (Women) Act eventually removed this restriction, allowing women to enroll and practice law.[1] The act was passed after Guha's demise, but her siblings established an endowment at Calcutta University in her memory to mark its passage, awarding a medal to the student who stood first in the M.A. English examination each year.[1][2]

Additional reading

References
  1. Sen, Jhuma. "The Indian Women Who Fought Their Way Into the Legal Profession". The Wire. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  2. Chakrabarti, Kaustav (March 2017). ""Revisiting the Educational and Literacy Activities among the Jewish Women of Calcutta"". International Journal of Social Science Studies. 5 (3): 25–50. doi:10.11114/ijsss.v5i3.2241 – via HeinOnline.
  3. "Recalling Jewish Calcutta | Hannah Sen · 04 Women Pioneers". www.jewishcalcutta.in. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  4. "Miss Regina Guha". The Times of India. 23 August 1919. ProQuest 311117918.
  5. जैन, Arvind Jain अरविंद (12 June 2019). "No place for women in temples of justice". Forward Press. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  6. 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.
  7. Veeraraghavan, A.N. (1972). "Legal Profession and the Advocates Act, 1961". Journal of the Indian Law Institute. 14 (2): 228–262. ISSN 0019-5731. JSTOR 43950131.
  8. Manson, Edward; Trevelyan, E. J. (1917). "Notes on Cases". Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation. 17 (1/2): 268–278. ISSN 1479-5973. JSTOR 752258.
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