How can I have anything but contempt for a CJI who asks a man who violently, repeatedly raped a minor girl, pushed her to attempt suicide, if he will marry his victim. How can any girl or woman in India be safe with CJIs like Gogoi & Bobde? #thread bit.ly/3b3yRI5
The accused stalked a Std 9th girl, entered the house in her family's absence, tied up, gagged & raped her. Then raped her repeatedly with threats of acid attacks, burning alive, killing her brother. The victim attempted suicide, then the mother got to know of the rape
At the police station, the mother was pressured by the accused's mother to sign a statement saying the accused wd marry the victim. This kind of 'compromise' is, by the way, a very common occurrence in police stations & even courts all over India bit.ly/3uLGRpk
Why do such "compromises" happen? "The reality of what a compromise means is brought home by several judgments which note how the survivor or a relative committed suicide or was murdered for resisting a settlement with her rapist." - Baxi cites several instances
When the girl turned 18 and the accused refused to marry her, the girl's family pursued the rape case. The Sessions Court granted bail, the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay HC (correctly) overturned the bail order. Bombay HC upheld the Aurangabad HC order, observing: +
"the impugned order passed by the Addl Sessions Judge is atrocious...he approach of the learned Judge from such a reasoning clearly shows his utter lack of sensitivity in such serious matters." Bobde, in his response to the appeal in the SC, displayed the same atrocious approach
Of such "compromise marriages" Pratiksha Baxi writes "the rights of the rapist-as-husband are a macabre gift of modern Indian law". The fact that society & police perceive marriage as a solution to the harm of rape is one thing. But for the CJI to do so!
This is not just morally reprehensible of Bobde. As Pratiksha Baxi's article points out, it is firmly established in multiple SC judgements that such a "compromise to marry" cannot be the basis to grant bail/mitigate sentences etc in a rape case bit.ly/3uLGRpk
"In 2013, the Supreme Court refused to mitigate the sentence of a rapist on the basis of a compromise, observing that ‘rape is a non-compoundable offence’ and it ‘is not a matter to be left for the parties to compromise and settle’. +
Similarly, the SC has held that the ‘offer of the rapist to marry the victim’ is not a ‘relevant reason’ to mitigate a sentence. Courts have also declined to grant bail on the grounds of compromise. If Bobde doesn't know this, should he be CJI??
A CJI holds enormous power to make or mar the lives, dignity & freedoms of women in India. When a Gogoi acquits himself of sexual harassment & blames the victim from the heights of the SC Bench, when a Bobde refuses to entertain an appeal against the Feeble No rape acquittal
when a Bobde asks a rapist to marry the victim, when Bobde asks why women are "kept" in protests - these CJIs' actions put every woman in India in great peril. They tell women we are less than human. No person with such views should be a judge, let alone a CJI.
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