Supreme Court seeks K K Venugopal's assistance on orders trivialising victim's trauma in sexual assault cases

Women lawyers aggrieved with Madhya Pradesh High Court order for rape accused get 'rakhi' tied by victim

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Attorney General to decide, if a court can issue a direction like accused should get 'Rakhi' tied on his hand by the victim as a condition of bail in sexual offences, trivialising the trauma suffered by her.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and B R Gavai sought the assistance of Attorney General K K Venugopal, as senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, representing a group of woman lawyers, contended such orders objectified the victims.

The counsel contended the High Court should not have put such weird conditions for bail, which was against the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The plea was filed under extraordinary situation against a Madhya Pradesh High Court's order of July 30, but there have been instances of such orders from other states, he said.

The court agreed to examine the matter on November 2.

Also read — Women lawyers ask SC to overturn order for rape accused to get 'rakhi' tied by victim as condition of bail

The women lawyers had approached the court asking it to set aside the Madhya Pradesh High Court's direction to a rape accused to get 'Raksha Bandhan' tied by the victim as a condition for bail.

In their plea, they said it has been seen in sexual assault cases, women and families do not seek redressal from the criminal justice system primarily to avoid such kind of secondary trauma that they are subjected to in the process of a criminal trial.

They asked whether High Court ought not to have employed circumspection and sensitivity while dealing with a case involving a sexual offence and also related to wrongful entry into the property of the victim.

The lawyers led by Aparna Bhat said imposing a condition where the accused would be required to go to the house of the complainant on the festival of 'Raksha Bandhan' and request her to tie a rakhi around his wrist with the “promise to protect her to the best of his ability for all times to come” resulted in further victimisation of the survivor in her own house.

They challenged the validity of the Madhya Pradesh High Court's order of July 30 by which the accused was also told to pay Rs 11,000 to the complainant as customary ritual and seek her blessings and pay Rs 5,000 to her son for the purchase of clothes and sweets.

"While it is routine for courts to award certain compensation to survivors of sexual offences to be paid by the accused, it is highly objectionable for the High Court in the present case to put the complainant in a position where she is forced to accept the sum of Rs 11,000," they said.

They further pointed out that the present case was of particular concern since it took years to undo the damaging approach followed by courts whereby cases involving sexual offences committed against women were attempted to be compromised by way of marriage or mediation between the accused and the survivor.