Tribute | Mary Roy, a revolutionary who embodied the spirit of equality

Mary Roy, who passed away on Thursday, was a revolutionary in her day-to-day life. Her name stands out in the records of the Supreme Court as the first woman in India who successfully fought against personal laws of succession, demanding equality before the law, equal protection of the law, and non-discrimination based on sex.

The Travancore Christian Succession Act (TSA) mandated that a daughter would get a maximum of Rs 5,000 from her deceased father and the rest of the estate would go to the male successors. But Mary only discovered this after she had a broken marriage and returned to Kottayam to her ancestral home along with two children seeking shelter with the natal family.

She settled down in a little cottage in Ootty which belonged to her father, with her two children. It was then that she was told that she had to leave the house because it was not part of her inheritance. When her family tried to evict her, she called her local lawyer for advice. They gave her the one piece of advice which was about to change her life.

They told her that they knew nothing about personal laws and could not advise her on her rights to succession. But one thing they knew – that no person can be evicted from being in settled possession without due process of law.

That was enough to protect Mary and her two children. When the police knocked on her door, she told them that she would refuse to leave and that if they wanted to evict her they had to approach a court of law. Mary was let alone by the police.

It was then that Mary became aware of the TCA. Determined to fight for equality and as a matter of survival, she moved the Supreme Court with a petition arguing that the law was not constitutional as it discriminated against her on the ground of sex. Hers was the first case ever to frontally challenge personal laws on the ground of equality before the law and equal protection of laws granted under articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India.

I was privileged to represent her: for me, too, it was the first case in which I rose to challenge laws governing succession in that they discriminated against women. However, the Supreme Court dodged the question of equality but gave the relief to Mary that she expected. The Court held that the TCA stood repealed with the coming to force of the Part-B States Act (1951) and that Syrian Christian women would now be governed by the Indian Succession Act which gave equal widows, sons, and daughters.

Although the case was won in 1986, it was not until 2006 that Mary got physical possession of the agricultural land from her brother who resisted her every step on the way. Mary’s mother supported her son and not her. But for Mary, equality was not negotiable.

Sadly, however, the law did not change much for the women of the Syrian Christian community because she was up against a misogynist state and the church began to advise the flock from the pulpit that they should promptly make wills disinheriting daughters.

Fortunately, however, attempts to reverse the judgment were thwarted. No doubt, a few wealthy women exceedingly rich Syrian Christian community, endowed with coffee estates did manage to get their share in ancestral property. But those who could not fight for their rights were confined to be denied their rights. Mary taught me that property is the bottom line where misogyny, patriarchy, and religion come together to show their ugly face.

Mary was an educationalist till the end of her life. She lived in a simple household made of bricks, designed by Laurie Baker merging with the local environment, which was the heart of what she founded – Corpus Christy.

The rich and the powerful who otherwise hated her fight for justice sent their children for the excellence that she provided in education. Mary evolved her educational pattern, teaching in the local language before introducing the children to the English medium of education.

Later she changed the name of the school to a more secular name, Pallikoodam. The local establishment continued to battle her when she decided to stage the play, Jesus Christ – Super Star. The district collector went to the extent of banning the play though it has been played all over the world and faced no opposition from the state or the Church. Once again Mary approached the Sup Court and based on an interim order she staged the play in the school giving her a sense of peace for having achieved what she wanted for the children.

Distinguished students have passed through the corridors of her school. She enjoyed the love and affection of her students She never allowed them to refer to her or the teachers as ‘Madam’. Hierarchy was not something she encouraged. She knew every child in school by name, she knew the children of the employees of the school, without any class distinction.

There was a time when I used to say that the ghost of Narasu Appa, a judgment of the High Court of Bombay stalks the Supreme Court. The High Court had held that personal laws of marriage and succession could not violate Fundamental Rights because they did not qualify for the meaning of ‘law’ under Article 13 of the Constitution of India.

To date, the Supreme Court has never struck down any personal law on the ground that it violated the Fundamental Right of women to equality. In Mary’s case, the Court had a golden opportunity to do so. But they missed it. Mary demonstrated through her life that the loss was of the Supreme Court and not hers.

I will now have to say that the friendly ghost of Mary Roy will stalk the Supreme Court until it declares that all personal laws - whether it is Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Parsis – which violate the Fundamental Rights of women are unconstitutional.

Mary lived a difficult life. But it was a life of good cheer and she fought a good fight. She fought the patriarchal system, she fought her brother and mother who refused to understand that she was the lawful inheritor of her father, as much as her brother was. Mary was a woman of means who could fight for her inheritance. But she also fought for the working class women and widows who were disinherited by their families. She lived for her passion and lived a good life. Her life had meaning only when she fought the good fight.

In her passing, not only Kerala but the whole country has lost something very precious, namely, a person who embodied the spirit of equality. One can only hope that her legacy will be inherited by other women who will continue the fight. Hers was an inheritance of equality and justice for women.

Another woman from Kerala I represented come to mind. That is Bindu, the first woman to make a pilgrimage to Sabarimala after the Supreme Court’s historic judgment permitting women to enter the temple. Though the two women never met, they shared much in common. I pray that may there be many Mary to come. She inspired me to go further and further in my quest for justice through law.

(The author represented Mary Roy in her legendary legal battle in the Supreme Court)