Pardanashin woman is the women who observed rigid rules of seclusion. Various legal systems and traditions arranged special arrangements for the protection and preservations of the interest of the pardanashin woman in terms of contract, execution, search, photographs, commissions, etc.

A woman who observes the practice of seclusion; applied to a respectable female who observes the rules of seclusion, and who is on that account excused from personal appearance in a court of justice. [Wil. Gloss. 402]

“Parda-nishin” means a woman who, according to the custom of the country, might reasonably object to appear in a public office. [Section 2 of the Mahommed Marriage and Divorce Registration, 1876 (Rep. by Act LII of 1974)]

A woman of rank who lives in seclusion, shut in the Zenana, having no communication except from behind the parda or screen with any male persons save a few near relations. [Satish Chandra vs. Kali Dasi AIR 1922 Cal 203]