NDTV Hindi News - Get the latest update here

The declared aim of the mediation is to arrange for the marriage of the rapist with the victim. The judgement is deeply flawed on all counts: legally, morally, ethically. If allowed to stand, it sets a dangerous precedent for the use of ADR to enable a criminal convicted rapist to escape punishment.

But first about the courageous young woman Vimla (name changed). A team of senior members of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), with whom I work, met Vimla in her village after the judgement, so that we could hear from her directly what she thought of the judgement and whether she required any assistance.

Vimla unequivocally rejects the judgment. She has asked for assistance to challenge it. She has stated that she does not want any mediation. She is a single mother. Her daughter was born of the rape. Vimla told The Indian Express, “One day I will tell my daughter that her father is a rapist.” She told the AIDWA team that she would have been happy if the judgement had ensured that she got some help to educate her child, but as it stands, even the two lakh rupee fine levied on the rapist by the additional sessions court has not been paid.

All this information is in the public domain. Yet the Tamil Nadu state government has not bothered to contact her, forget the apology it should make for its shoddy treatment of the case. Its public prosecutors never once asked the judge to allow them to consult the victim whose future was being decided. The Jayalalithaa government should immediately appeal against the order. On our part, AIDWA along with other women’s organizations in Tamil Nadu will be taking the steps required.

The rape occurred in 2008. The criminal was convicted in 2012. He has been in jail for less than half the sentence. He appealed to the High Court, asking that the sentence be set aside and his bail plea granted. His counsel made a verbal suggestion that the convict could marry the victim. This particular bench, it appears, has a penchant for mediation in rape cases where the rapist has been convicted and is in appeal, having passed a similar order in another case referred to proudly in the present order.

The order reads that Vimla and her close relatives and the convicted criminal and his close relatives “shall be made to participate in the mediation process.” In legal parlance the word “shall” means you have to follow the order whether you want to or not. It is utterly reprehensible that a judicial order should coerce a rape victim to sit across the table with the perpetrator of the crime to discuss marriage. The concept of consent is critically important in understanding the difference between choice and coercion. This is true not just in the definition of rape. It applies equally in the responsibility of the courts, governments and all those authorities supposed to be involved in bringing justice to the victim to ensure that the consent of the victim is central to any decisions taken in her name. It should be seen in the framework of democratic rights and civil liberties. The order tramples on this minimum principle of justice.

The order refers to the victim as “nobody’s wife”, “an unwed mother” and says that the child is the “main victim” who will carry a “social stigma” with the conclusion being that this is a “fit case for mediation.” The rapist, in this perverted logic of the order, is converted into the saviour of the woman he raped, the knight in shining armour who will wipe out the curse of being “nobody’s wife, an unwed mother”. Being the saviour, he must be given bail and in the words of the order “be allowed to participate in the mediation as a free man and vent his feelings, open his mind and moorings” … a rapist being asked by the High Court to vent his feelings to his victim, to open his mind? Can anything be more sick? Yes, because the order says “Where there is a will, there is a way… there are no victors and no vanquished.”

There is a strong struggle on against rape cultures, cultures that blame the woman, cultures that justify the crime, cultures that trivialize the crime. But there is another dimension too, which is equally destructive, which while masquerading as being sympathetic to the victim holds that there is no life for a rape victim beyond the rape, that a rape victim embodies the living dead, that the rape victim will always have to live with social stigma, that at the end the only choice for her is to compromise with the perpetrator of the crime against her because in this view, it is a lesser price for her to pay. When a police officer says to a rape victim think twice before you file the complaint because it is you who will suffer, when a political leader says the rape victim is a living corpse, when society says, poor thing who will marry her, they are telling the victim,  compromise, compromise, compromise. This is precisely the thinking reflected in this horrendous judicial order. Vimla wants justice, the court wants her to compromise by marrying the rapist and uses its power to force her onto that path.

The order has to be struck down on other legal grounds too. It assumes that the High Court has the inherent power under Sec 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to intervene in such cases. This is a complete misreading of Sec 482 which is an instrument that the courts can use on three grounds – to give effect to the Code, to prevent misuse of the court processes and to serve the ends of justice. The Order is in violation of all three conditions. Secondly, Alternative Dispute Resolution is mostly used in commercial cases or cases of a civil nature. It cannot under any circumstances be used in cases of violence against women, least of all in cases of sexual assault. Thirdly, the High Court or any other Court has no right at all to force a woman rape victim to go for mediation with the rapist.

The judgement brings shame to India’s judicial system.

(Brinda Karat is a Politburo member of the CPI(M) and a former Member of the Rajya Sabha.)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

The landslides have caused extensive damage to NH 10 (old NH 55A) and NH 55, cutting off road and telecommunication link to Darjeeling and Sikkim.

25 landslips were reported in the three sub-divisions. 18 people have been killed in the landslides and a SSB team has rushed to the affected area, the officer said.

 

There are also reports of 15 people missing at 8 Mile and 11 Mile areas in Kalimpong.

NH-10 has borne the brunt with the road link to Sikkim, Kalimpong, Lava, Lolegaon and Garubathan snapped.

NH 55 connecting Siliguri, Matigara with Darjeeling was also damaged particularly in Mirik and Rohini areas. A bridge on NH 55 has been washed away at Nimbujhora.

NDTV has accessed an email sent in April by Mr Modi in which he asks the minister’s husband to be an Alternate Director, which means Mr Kaushal would fill in for him at board meetings. Mr Kaushal, who has for years been one of Mr Modi’s lawyers, refused the officer. But the Opposition Congress says the fact that he was sought out by Mr Modi offers new evidence of the inappropriate proximity between the Foreign Minister and the entrepreneur.

“When he turned down the offer, what is the problem? Swaraj Kaushal has not hidden his professional links to Lalit Modi,” said BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao.

Mr Modi is wanted in an omnibus of corruption cases in India and now lives in London. Earlier this month, the government was hit by the revelation that last year, Ms Swaraj intervened with UK officials to enable Mr Modi to travel to Portugal with his wife. But the Opposition Congress says the minister is guilty of grave conflict of interest in using her office to help her husband’s client, who has avoided returning to India to face the charges against him.

“Was the offer from Lalit Modi to Swaraj Kaushal also made on humanitarian grounds?” asked Tom Vadakkan of the Congress today.

The Opposition is demanding the resignation of Ms Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who in writing backed Mr Modi’s immigration appeal in the UK. Mr Modi also bought stake in a company co-owned by her son.

The government has backed both Ms Swaraj and Ms Raje. But the Opposition has said it will disrupt the Monsoon Session of Parliament which begins on the 21st unless the leaders are removed from office.

The woman came to the court from Denmark in pursuance of summons issued earlier and her statement is being recorded before Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja in an in-camera proceeding.

The court had summoned the woman on February 24 this year for recording of her testimony after the earlier one issued on January 13 could not be served upon her.

The court had directed that fresh summons be issued to the woman as per the guidelines of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) which require a processing time of at least three months.

The court’s direction had come after the IO informed it that the summons issued to the woman had returned unserved as India does not have a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) with Denmark.

The police, in its charge sheet, had said that the eight persons, all vagabonds, had allegedly robbed and gangraped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014 after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers’ Club near New Delhi Railway Station.

The eight accused, including two juveniles, were arrested in the case. The two juveniles are facing an inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board in Delhi.

The six adult accused – Mahendra alias Ganja (24), Mohd Raja (22), Raju (23), Arjun (21), Raju Chakka (22) and Shyam Lal (55), are in judicial custody and facing trial.

The eight accused have been booked under sections 376(2) (g) (gangrape), 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 392 (robbery) of IPC.

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Following predictions of more rains in the next few days, district administration of Lucknow ordered extension of the summer vacations in schools till July 4.

The regional Meteorological department predicted moderate to heavy showers in the next 48 hours till Friday morning.

The Ghaghara river is in spate and people are being evacuated in Gonda, Bahraich and Barabanki areas, where small embankments have been washed away in the rains.

A state government official said the flood control machinery has been activated due to heavy rains in the past few days.

Many cities have been flooded with water on roads due to clogging of the drains. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court asked the chief secretary to personally supervise operations and ensure that the drains are properly cleaned.

“Dear Premier Li Keqiang, greetings on your birthday. I pray for your long life. I warmly recall our meeting in May,” PM Modi said in message posted on his Chinese social media account on Sina Weibo which he opened ahead his visit to Beijing in May this year.

President Li, number two ranking leader after President Xi Jinping in the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) turned 60 today.

He is currently on a visit to Belgium and France. PM Modi held talks with Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang during his May visit.

Together with President Li, PM Modi attended a joint demonstration of Yoga and Taichi in Beijing and posted a selfie with the Chinese Premier on Weibo.