CJI Bobde’s ‘Will You Marry Her’ Question to Rape Accused Sparks Anger, Shock

The Chief Justice of India SA Bobde asking a rape accused whether he would marry the woman he allegedly raped when she was a minor has sparked an outrage among many as reflected on social media.

CJI Bobde on Monday asked the question “will you marry her?” to the counsel of Mohit Subhash Chavan, a government employee, who was seeking protection from arrest after being accused of raping a schoolgirl and facing charges under the stringent POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) law.

Responding to the CJI’s question, Chavan’s advocate said, "I will take instructions,” as reported by the Bar and Bench. The CJI replied saying, "You should have thought before seducing and raping the young girl. You knew you are a government servant.”

On Tuesday, Brinda Karat, Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), wrote a letter to the CJI asking him to withdraw the protection from arrest granted to the accused and to uphold the judgement of the Aurangabad High Court, which ruled that anticipatory bail granted to him by a lower court was “atrocious.”

Referring to CJI Bobde's comments regarding the marriage of the accused to the victim, Karat said, “These questions, words and actions have serious implications in granting of bail in cases of rape of minors. Please reconsider and withdraw these comments and questions…”

Reacting to the CJI’s comments during the hearing, Kavita Krishnan, Secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), asked on Twitter, “How can I have anything but contempt for a CJI who asks a man who violently, repeatedly raped a minor girl, pushed her to attempt suicide, if he will marry his victim.”

In a long thread on the matter, Krishnan further said, “Of such ’compromise marriages’ Pratiksha Baxi writes ‘the rights of the rapist-as-husband are a macabre gift of modern Indian law’. The fact that society & police perceive marriage as a solution to the harm of rape is one thing. But for the CJI to do so!” Referring to a 2013 judgement of the apex court, She added that the Court had refused to mitigate the sentence of a rapist on the basis of a compromise, and the apex court had observed that rape was a non-compoundable offence and it “is not a matter to be left for the parties to compromise and settle."

Many on social media shared views similar to Krishnan with some calling for CJI Bobde to resign and others seeing it as a proof of all-pervasive patriarchy.

One user, Kamalpreet, quoted a news update where the CJI posed the said question and tweeted saying, “The patriarch in CJI Bobde strikes again!”

Journalist Aarti Tikoo Singh said the Chief Justice’s comments could not get more “regressive” and “anti-woman.”

Another Twitter user said that the apex court was not a “matrimonial agency” and someone should inform the CJI about that. “Someone tell CJI Bobde that SC isn't a matrimonial agency, his job is to punish the culprit and give justice to victim, NOT arrange marriages with r@pists,” the user said.

Lavanya Ballal, social media coordinator of All India Congress Committee (AICC), shared a video on Twitter on this subject. “To ask a man who has raped a woman ‘will you marry the rape victim’ is scary and sets a bad precedent,” she said.

Women are not objects,

To ask a man who has raped a woman “ will you marry the rape victim” is scary and sets a bad precedent.

What women need is a safe space to live with dignity. pic.twitter.com/eIiIOL4Vwa

— Lavanya Ballal | ಲಾವಣ್ಯ ಬಲ್ಲಾಳ್ (@LavanyaBallal) March 2, 2021

On Monday, the Supreme Court was hearing an appeal against a verdict of the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court, which set aside an order of the Sessions Court that granted the appellant (i.e. the rape accused) anticipatory bail.

The Supreme Court went on to stay the arrest of the petitioner while granting him interim protection for four weeks, Bar and Bench reported. The petitioner has been asked to apply for regular bail in this period.

According to NDTV, the petitioner told the SC that his mother had offered marriage when the complainant initially went to the police and the victim had refused the offer. Then, a document was apparently drawn up stating a marriage would take place once the girl turned 18. The man reportedly refused to marry her when the girl reached the legal marriage age and following this, a rape complaint was filed against him, according to a petition filed by Chavan. In the complaint against the accused, allegations were made that the petitioner's mother made the victim's mother, who is illiterate, sign an undertaking saying there was an affair between the accused and the victim and that they had ‘consensual’ sexual relations, according to Bar and Bench.