India’s top judge is facing appeals to resign after telling an accused rapist to marry his high school victim to avoid arrest.
More than 5,000 people signed a petition demanding that court president Sharad Arvind Bobde resign after telling the government technician at a hearing: “If you want to get married [her] We can help you. Otherwise, you lose your job and go to jail. ”
Bobde’s comments generated furor and prompted women’s rights activists to circulate an open letter that obtained more than 5,200 signatures calling for his resignation.
According to the letter, the defendant is accused of repeatedly stalking, tying, gagging and raping the girl and threatening to throw her in gasoline, set her on fire and have her brother killed.
“In suggesting that this rapist marry the victim-survivor, you, the President of the Supreme Court of India, tried to condemn the victim-survivor to a life of rape at the hands of the executioner who led her to the suicide attempt,” said the Letter.
India’s abysmal record in relation to sexual violence has been a focus of international attention since the collective rape and murder of a student in 2012 on a Delhi bus. Victims are regularly subjected to sexist treatment at the hands of the police and the courts, including being encouraged to marry their attackers in so-called compromise solutions.
The letter drew attention to another hearing on Monday, during which Bobde questioned whether sex between a couple could ever be considered rape. “The husband may be a brutal man, but can you call rape the act of sexual intercourse between a legally married husband and wife?” he said.
The letter from the defenders of rights said: “This comment not only legitimizes any kind of sexual, physical and mental violence on the part of the husband, but normalizes the torture that Indian women have been facing in marriages for years without any legal recourse”
Marital rape is not a crime in India. Bobde did not respond to criticism.
His predecessor, Ranjan Gogoi, was the most prominent figure in India to face a #MeToo complaint after being accused by a former employee of sexual assault. He was acquitted in 2019 after an internal investigation, prompting protests in the country.