More than 3,500 concerned citizens, representatives of women’s and feminist movements sent an open letter to the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, demanding that he resign and apologize for his comments in court, where he asked a man, accused of rape a minor, if he was willing to marry her.
The CJI made the observation on Monday while listening to the request for protection against the arrest of a man accused of stalking, binding, gagging, repeatedly raping a school-age minor and threatening to douse her in gasoline and set her on fire, in order to throw acid at her. , and have his brother killed. The crime came to light when the minor school-age victim attempted suicide.
“From the heights of the CJI post of the Supreme Court, send the message to other courts, judges, police and all other law enforcement agencies that justice is not a constitutional right of women in India. This will only lead to further silencing of girls and women. To rapists, he sends the message that marriage is a license to rape; and that by obtaining said license, the rapist can decriminalize or legalize his post facto act ”, reads the letter endorsed by renowned activists for women’s rights such as Annie Raja, Kavita Krishnan, Kamla Bhasin, Meera Sanghamitra, Maimoona Mollah and Zakia Soman.
About 50 groups and networks are also among the signatories, including the Association of Progressive Women of India, the National Federation of Indian Women, Saheli, the Forum Against the Oppression of Women, the Bebaak Collective.
The CJI also received criticism for its comments in another case in which it asked whether sexual relations between a legally married man and wife can be called rape even if the husband is a brutal man.
In a separate letter to the Chief Justice of India for his comments on two rape cases, Brinda Karat, a member of the ICC Policy Bureau (M), said: “Rape victims are not robots whose thoughts and feelings are under the remote control of others ”.
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