NEW DELHI – Indignation in India is growing with comments made by the president of the court on two cases of rape, with thousands of women signing a letter this week demanding that he resign.
Judge Sharad Arvind Bobde, head of India’s Supreme Court, asked a 23-year-old man accused of raping a minor if he would marry his victim, who is now an adult.
The victim, who cannot be identified under Indian law, accused the man, a distant relative and a government official in the state government of Maharashtra, of harassing and raping her repeatedly since the age of 16.
The judge’s comments sparked new demands that people in power, especially men, do more to improve the way women and girls are treated in India.
A wave of shocking attacks in recent years has prompted groups of women and other activists to change long-standing attitudes towards sexual violence.
Justice for victims is rare. Of the tens of thousands of rape cases recorded annually in India, only a handful result in prosecutions, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. Activists say the real scope of the problem is much worse, as many cases are never reported because of the stigma.
On Monday, Judge Bobde was listening to a petition filed by the accused in the statutory rape case to obtain relief from an arrest warrant from a lower court.
“Are you going to marry her?” Justice Bobde asked, according to Indian media reports.
“You should have thought before you seduced and raped the young woman,” he added. “We are not forcing you to get married. Let us know if you want. “
Activists said they were “shocked and outraged”.
“His marriage proposal as a friendly solution to resolve the case of rape of a minor girl is worse than atrocious and insensitive, as it deeply erodes the victims’ right to seek justice,” the published open letter Said Tuesday.
Justice Bobde did not reply.
Sex with minors is a crime in India under the Child Protection Act against Sexual Crimes 2012. Mandatory sentences range from 10 years in prison to life in prison, and bail is rarely granted.
According to court documents, the families reached an agreement that the man would marry the girl when she turned 18. The man later reneged on his promise and married someone else. In 2019, when the family filed a lawsuit against the man, a district court granted him early bail.
However, the Bombay High Court overturned that order, writing a strong criticism of the lower court.
“Such an approach is a clear indication that the learned judge lacks absolute competence,” wrote the court.
The accused then approached the Supreme Court. Judge Bobde and the other two members of the bench gave him four weeks’ protection from arrest.
More than 4,000 women signed the letter demanding the resignation of the president of the court, including Anuradha Banerji, an activist with the Saheli women’s rights group.
“When the president of India’s court makes these archaic and patriarchal comments, it signals a deeper rot in both the judicial system and society,” said Banerji. “Millions of girls will know that their values are in the possibility of marriage and not in their personality.”
The victim’s lawyer declined to comment on Friday.
In a separate case, according to the letter and media reports, Judge Bobde appeared to tolerate rape in the context of a consensual relationship.
“When two people live as husband and wife, however brutal the husband may be, can the sexual act between them be called rape?” Judge Bobde asked when he heard a petition filed by a man accused of rape by a woman who was his partner.
The furor surrounding the judge’s comments came a month after another Bombay Supreme Court judge, Judge Pushpa Ganedivala, had his promotion blocked after several of his trials in sexual assault cases were criticized.
His decision in a child abuse case that touching a minor without skin-to-skin contact could not be considered sexual assault under the child protection law has sparked outrage. She acquitted the man, whom a court of first instance convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old child. After India’s attorney general said it set a dangerous precedent, the Supreme Court suspended the sentence.
In two separate cases, Judge Ganedivala acquitted two other men accused of raping minors, claiming that the victims’ testimonies were unreliable.
After her decisions, a Supreme Court panel led by Judge Bobde reversed her decision to make her a permanent judge at the Bombay Supreme Court.