By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, April 29, 2022: Men and women have reacted differently to a retired judge’ remarks that rape cases end in low convictions because women misuse the laws.
While men welcomed the remarks as “a bold statement” women found them shocking and traditional attitudes of viewing women as sex objects.
Retired Justice of the Supreme Court B N Srikrishna quoted statistics to point out rape cases ended in lesser conviction even after the amendment of rape laws
“It is time that rape cases be looked at in a very objective manner. We need to question — is the woman really subjected to cruelty and atrocities? Otherwise, in the general course of things, the accused is presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty should apply. However, in rape cases, whatever the woman says is treated as the gospel truth. But that is not the intention of the law. It is not the way to empower women.”
Justice Srikrishna, the former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, was on April 23 talking at the screening of documentary film India’s Sons in Mumbai. The film directed by Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj and Neeraj Kumar showed stories of some men falsely accused of rape and later acquitted.
“There is no doubt that rape laws are being misused in the country,” asserted the judge who advocated that the name of the accused too should be kept anonymous.
Reacting to the news, Jose Abraham, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, said the judge’s statement “is indeed a bold statement” that “requires special consideration by the law makers.”
The statement is from “one of the best judges who has a thorough knowledge in criminal law jurisprudence in India,” Jose told Matters India April 28.
Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, who was recently acquitted in a rape case, says “people of vested interest use women as a instruments to get their targets which they could not get otherwise.”
Besides his “most discussed” case, the bishop cited the rape case against Tarun Tejpal, former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine. A female colleague in 2013 accused him of sexual assault. The case that received intense public attention and media scrutiny ended in Tejpal’s acquittal in May 2021.
“Name of the accused should be protected at least till the trial is over. Otherwise it is a blunt violation of human rights of the accused,” asserts Bishop Mulakkal. Asking, “Who can compensate me for what I lost?” the bishop says the law must be modified. “All should be equal before the law. Special treatment to women only says that they are inferior,” the prelate told Matters India.
Flavia Agnes, a Mumbai-based women’s rights lawyer, recalls that Justice Srikrishna had given “some very bad anti-labor judgments” as a supreme court judge. “He has retired a long time ago. What firsthand knowledge does he hav about false cases except what he saw in this biased documentary?” she asks.
Virginia Saldanha, a Mumbai-based lay theologian and woman activist, says Justice Srikrishna’s “statements attributing the low conviction rate to women misusing rape laws are shocking.”
She says traditional attitudes view women as sex objects and classify them as morally virtuous or flirtatious. “Flirtatious women are seen as fair game, and blamed for ‘tempting’ men, blurring consent. Hence his suggestion to look at the case objectively, questioning whether she was really subjected to cruelty and atrocities,” she says.
Saldanha says the retired judge “fails to recognize that female babies and even old women have been raped in India. Vulnerability is a crucial factor. Vulnerability varies with the status and power of the rapist vis-a-vis the victim.”
According to her, rape is “an invasion of women’s private body space, a horror which she lives with for the rest of her life. Some do it violently and others use their position of power to bring unsuspecting women into compromising situations which leave them tongue tied to confront that powerful male.”
Powerful men, she adds, continue to use their money power to influence judgments that help them get verdicts of “false case.”
“The cultural attitudes towards women in India contribute heavily to women’s vulnerability. Hence, inequality and vulnerability should always be deciding factors in rape cases provided the judge is just,” she told Matters India.