Key Points:
- CJI Bobde was immediately all over the media after the March 1 hearing as the headlines said, “CJI Bobde asked the rapist, ‘Will You Marry Her?’”
- “As an institution and as a bench in this court, we have always had the highest respect for the womanhood. This court has always given the largest respect to women. We never asked the accused to marry the girl. We asked him ‘Are you going to marry her’. There was complete misreporting of what we said,” observed the CJI and told the media on Monday.
- The Chief justice said, “We did not have any marital rape cases before us. I asked my brothers (judges sitting in the bench). They, too, do not remember. This institution, particularly this bench, we have the highest respect for womanhood.”
On March 1, Chief Justice of India S A Bobde was busy on the hearing of the bail request of one Mohit Subhash Chavan, a technician with the Maharashtra State Electric Production Company, accused of raping a schoolgirl. He faced charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences law.
CJI Bobde was immediately all over the media after the hearing as the headlines said, “CJI Bobde asked the rapist, ‘Will You Marry Her?’” On Monday, on the eve on Women’s Day, CJI Bobde came up to the media clarifying his hearing statement. “As an institution and as a bench in this court, we have always had the highest respect for the womanhood. This court has always given the largest respect to women. We never asked the accused to marry the girl. We asked him ‘Are you going to marry her’. There was complete misreporting of what we said,” observed the CJI. As an institution, the Supreme Court have always had the highest respect for the womanhood, said Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde on Monday.
The Chief justice said, “We did not have any marital rape cases before us. I asked my brothers (judges sitting in the bench). They, too, do not remember. This institution, particularly this bench, we have the highest respect for womanhood.”
“We did not ask him (rape accused) to marry. We asked ‘are you going to marry?’ We did not say ‘marry’,” Chief Justice Bobde said today. “Our reputation is always at the hands of the bar,” the Chief Justice of India said.
The man’s lawyer said the accused was initially willing to marry the girl but she had refused and now he was married to someone else. Following backlash over the alleged remarks, CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat had written to the chief justice asking him to withdraw his remarks reportedly made during the March 1 hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of the accused.
There were women’s rights activists, eminent citizens, intellectuals, writers and artists who wrote to the chief justice demanding an apology and retraction of the remarks after the media reported CJI Bobde’s statement.
