Please - Odhikar

persons and underwent medical tests. She thought she could bring the rapists to book. She was
wrong, A few weeks into the probe, the investigating officer, Subodh Chakraborty wrote to the
then IG, BST (South Bengal) seeking permission to question the five. Nothing was heard of the
matter thereafter. In the last two years she has been in jail, no Lawyer has taken up her case. As
a final resort, the jail Department intends to request the Law Department to assign her a
Government Lawyer.
The instances of violation on women, including rape, is found in different places and the victims
generally belong to the weaker sections of the society, dalits, tribals or the poor. Often the
women of the disadvantaged sections of the society are tortured or raped to show or prove the
dominance of the higher castes or the economically dominant sections of the society. It is
unfortunately often used as a tool to crush the dissent or protest or to teach a lesson to those who
have the courage to protest. The women are invariably the victims and the agencies of the state
administration, the police, para military forces and the army are responsible for the violation.
Such violations of human rights are often justified on the pretext that such women belong to
lower castes or a tribal community where the women often work outside to earn and have less
restriction on movement compared to the higher castes or economically dominant sections of
the society.
This naturally raises a very pertinent question. Can the responsibility of a crime and consequent
punishment vary depending on the socio-economic background of the victim and the
perpetuator?
Recently, the Supreme Court has set aside 20 judgments of Justice Narain Singh Azad of
Madhya Pradesh High Court awarding cursory prison terms, ranging from a few months to a few
years, to persons found guilty of rape, an offence that attracts a punishment of 7 to10 years'
rigorous imprisonment.
The reason given by Justice Azad for such punishments is interesting.
"The convict is an illiterate labourer from a rural area belonging to a Scheduled Tribe…It
appears to be a fit case to reduce the sentence to the period already undergone," Justice Azad had
noted.
Now, what does literacy and caste have anything to do with a crime, particularly a heinous one
like rape? The apex court felt so. Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice P.K.
Balsubramnyan unanimously said that the manner of disposal of the cases "exhibited a complete
non-application of mind" and have to be reheard by the high court.
The state deserves a pat on the back for filing appeals in the apex court without being bothered
about caste equations. According to standing counsel C.D. Singh, over 100 judgments of cursory
punishment given by Justice Azad were appealed against in the Supreme Court. Many are still
pending.
Not all high courts can be faulted for insensitivity. But the Supreme Court has, more than once
deprecated such disturbing trends of high courts awarding cursory punishments in rape cases.
The apex court has never minced words towards accused in rape cases, not since the uproar over
its 1978 judgment in the infamous Mathura rape case. It had acquitted two policemen of rape
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Report 2005