Supreme Court notice to Centre over 'discriminatory' CrPC provision disallowing woman to receive summons

The section jeopardises the victim's right to a speedy trial, the plea stated

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the validity of Section 64 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for discriminating against women by treating the female members of the family as incapable of accepting the summons on behalf of the male member.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli sought a response from the Centre on the plea filed by Kush Kalra through advocate Jyotika Kalra.

The petitioner contended that the "archaic and dogmatic" provision does not consider an adult female member of the family capable and competent to receive the summons.

The plea said Section 64 clearly violated the women’s right to equality guaranteed to them under Articles 14 and 15, the right to know guaranteed to them under Article 19(1)(a), and the right to dignity guaranteed to them under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“Section 64 CrPC jeopardises the victim's right to speedy trial guaranteed to him under Article 21 of the Constitution. Apart from significantly delaying the proceedings, section 64 Cr.P.C. creates hardships for all other relevant stakeholders as well,” the plea said.

The plea said the provision essentially failed to account for the situations when the person summoned resides only with the female family members or when the only person available at the time of service of summons is a female.

“The possibility of such a situation is particularly high in light of the stark gender gap in the workforce between the males and the females, i.e., only 22% of the Indian women are at work, which entails that the remaining 78% of women are at home" the plea added.