In the process, Priyadharshni started studying law and pursued the case even in the apex court.
Priyadharshni Rahul, 37, has had a challenging journey from litigant to Supreme Court lawyer. At the age of 24, her marriage to a government officer was called off due to unreasonable demands for dowry, and this experience motivated her to fight more for women’s rights.
“That day in 2011 shook my self-esteem and trust. Everything had been fixed. My family could not afford to meet their unreasonable dowry demands and we were all shattered,” she recalls.
Her father had retired from government service at the time, and her mother was a homemaker. The groom’s exorbitant dowry demands were a bolt from the blue. As the marriage was called off, societal embarrassment for the family followed.
Priyadharshni wondered why her family felt ashamed even though they were not at fault. She remembers being pressured to keep silent and forget the incident instead of fighting a legal battle.
The matter would have ended there as an unpleasant episode in this political science graduate’s life. However, refusing to be subjected to such humiliation even before the mutually agreed marriage could take place, something within this young girl snapped, and she approached the Madras High Court for justice.
In the process, Priyadharshni started studying law and pursued the case even in the apex court. “However, I have never played the victim card. But you have to decide what your self-respect is, not the society,” says Priyadharshni, who reasoned why she was so committed to fighting against dowry for 14 years.
The matter was settled last year with the intervention of the Supreme Court. She also volunteered to donate the amount of compensation of Rs 11 lakh to the Supreme Court Advocates Welfare Fund.
Advertisement
“I did not take a penny of the compensation amount but donated it to the Supreme Court Court Bar Association for the needy litigants, like whom I once was,” she says.
“All I thought was no other person should have the ease of cheating, abusing and torturing women under the pretext of dowry. The biggest challenge is understanding her requirements, pretending to the times,” adds Priyadarshi, who now lives in Delhi and visits Pune regularly to provide legal assistance to organisations, corporations, and politicians.
In 2015, she tied the knot with a lawyer who had completed his education at the prestigious Symbiosis Law School in Pune. Her husband proved to be her strong pillar of support, standing by her side and providing her with immense encouragement during her times of struggle.
After settling the matter, Priyadharshni refused to let it define her identity. She would often remind herself to strive for success rather than be known solely as a dowry survivor.
Advertisement
She started volunteering in various programmes, an important one being the Sansad Ratna apolitical award given to the best-performing parliamentarians initiated by Dr Abdul Kalam in 2009.
In 2023, Priyadharshni became the first woman chairperson of the Sansad Ratna Awards Committee. She also established Next Gen Political Leaders, an NGO to train political aspirants across parties.
“The aim,” she says, “is to motivate youngsters to join politics.” She continues to take up cases of dowry demands and fight them out in the courts, helping every dowry victim regain her dignity and confidence, just as she did.
