New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped an order by Madhya Pradesh high court in a case of sexual assault that granted bail to the accused man and directed him to get a "rakhi" tied by the woman.
The judgment comes after Supreme Court advocate Aparna Bhat and eight other women had challenged the July 2020 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Bar and Bench reported. The court had directed the man accused of having outraged the modesty of a woman to present himself before the complainant so that she may tie a "rakhi" on his wrist to be eligible for bail.
The plea filed by the nine lawyers said: "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 as part of the customary ritual of Raksha Bandhan. Moreover, the said bail condition also goes a step further by stating that Respondent No. 2 (the accused) tender Rs 5,000 to the son of the complainant."
In her plea before the Supreme Court, Aparna had contended that "such judgments from High Courts would end up trivializing such heinous offence and that there is a strong likelihood that such observations and directions may result in normalizing what is essentially a crime and has been recognised to be so by the law".
While setting aside the order, the bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Ravindra Bhat issued seven directions to be followed by lower courts while dealing with bail petitions in matters relating to crimes against women.
The top court had also issued a notice to Attorney General K K Venugopal on October 16, 2020, to elicit his views and suggestions on the issue. The AG had then filed written submissions on the steps that could be considered to correct the non-empathetic approach of judges in cases of sexual violence. Venugopal had suggested that judges, who are "old school" and "patriarchal" in their outlook, need to be sensitised so that they do not pass orders objectifying women in cases of sexual violence. With agency inputs