Lotika Sarkar, who passed away on 23rd February 2013, was a Professor of Law at Delhi University from 1951 till 1983, in addition to being a founding member of the Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi and the Indian Association of Women's Studies. She was a member of the Committee on the Status of Women (Government of India) that produced the historic Towards Equality report in 1974. She is probably best known and remembered as one of the four signatories to the Open Letter written to the Chief Justice of India, in protest against the Mathura judgment in 1979. It is only fit ting to dedicate this Special Issue on the Law Commission of India to Lotika's memory, for it seeks to build upon and continue her inquiry into the Commission's work on women's equality, which she undertook twenty-five years ago.