Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde's remarks made during the hearing of a case, where he asked a rape accused if he was willing to marry the victim drew flak from several quarters, including from CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat who asked him to withdraw his remarks.
When the hearing on the plea commenced on Monday, the bench, also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian, asked the accused, "Are you willing to marry her?" "If you are willing to marry her then we can consider it, otherwise you will go to jail," observed the bench adding, "We are not forcing you to marry."
Many on social media lambasted the remarks, pointing out how such remarks would normalise "rape to qualify for marriage," and noted, "the concept of consent is a mere delusion in India."
Expressing her dismay over the apex court remark, Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu had tweeted, "Did someone ask the girl this question ? If she wants to marry her rapist !!!??? Is that a question !!!??? This is the solution or a punishment ? Plain simple DISGUST."
"This is sickening & deeply disturbing. A rapist marrying his victim has been a gory & repulsive bollywood solution in the past, how can a Supreme Court of #India fall to these levels?" singer Sona Mohapatra had tweeted.
In a letter to CJI Bobde, Karat had said courts should not give an impression of supporting such "retrograde" approaches. The Left leader said such questions, words and actions have serious implications in granting of bail in cases of rape of minors. "Please reconsider and withdraw these comments and questions... Please uphold the judgment of the Aurangabad High Court which rules that bail granted to him by the lower court was 'atrocious'," she said.
"The girl was gagged and raped by this criminal, when she was just sixteen years old. He repeated his crime 10-12 times. The girl tried to commit suicide. Does this show consent?...In any case, in the case of a minor, as this girl was, the law is clear that there is no issue of consent," she wrote.
She also asked the CJI to consider the effect such questions will have on the psyche of victims,
The message given is that a rapist can escape jail if after the crime he agrees to marry his victim whether she wants to or not, she said.
"There is a prevailing retrograde social approach that the victim of rape is a 'bad' woman and if the rapist marries her, she gains respectability in the eyes of society. Comments of the apex court should not give the impression of supporting such approaches," she said.
Karat said the processes of justice must keep the interests of the rape victim at the centre. "Unfortunately in this case, the opposite has happened," she said.
