Malavika Rajkotia is an Indian lawyer. She has been called one of the country’s most successful divorce lawyers, and has handled several celebrity cases. Rajkotia is the founder of Rajkotia Associates, a law firm which provides legal assistance in Divorce cases, and is one of the leading firms for divorce cases in India. She has been practicing law for 32 years. She is also the author of Intimacy Undone: Law of Marriage, Divorce and Family in India. The book is a semi-academic book and is drawn from her experiences in the court room.
Malavika Rajkotia was a part of the dramatics society of her college and she became an amateur theater actor before she started pursuing law. She worked with Sheila Bhatia of Delhi Art Theater and was taught by Sheila Bhatia. She was part of the Hindi Theater. She decided pursue law and went on to become one of India's leading divorce attorneys. Rajkotia has drawn upon her own notes and a large number of case studies, to produce a book that examines the institution of marriage in India, gender equality, property and family laws and the legal profession. She writes about the reasons she came across for people getting divorced and concluded that one of the primary reasons has the respective gender roles. She says men had a problem when their wives expressed agency, and the resulting disagreement often led to divorce. She has admitted that the book is from a woman's perspective, and said that the way we treat both genders is uneven. Rajkotia has also handled celebrity cases and claimed that even though the voyeuristic interest in celebrity cases is higher, the proceedings are no different than a normal case. She represented Omar Abdullah in the event of his divorce. In one of the cases, the Judge remarked it was because of divorce lawyers the cases were prolonged, and not because of the complexities of those cases. Malavika Rajkotia was going to write an open letter to high court, but ultimately didn't and the letter made it to her book instead, She details the complications of Divorce cases and the loopholes such as the Section 498A in the Indian Divorce Law.
Personal life
Rajkotia’s husband died when she was 36.
Books
Rajakotia, Malavika. ‘Intimacy Undone: Law of Marriage, Divorce and Family in India’. Tiger Books, 2017.
