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“We (had) asked are you going to marry? We didn’t order (him to) ‘marry’,” the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, said. It also said the reputation of the judiciary is in the hands of its lawyers.
The observations by the bench were made while it was hearing another case – that of a 14-year-old pregnant rape survivor seeking permission to abort the fetus of almost 26 weeks.
The proceedings conducted through video conferencing referred to a provision of the Evidence Act and said the query was posed in the context of the records, but the issue was “completely misreported”. It was earlier stated that the apex court’s query asking a rape accused whether he would marry the victim was based on ‘judicial records’ containing an undertaking from the man that he would marry the minor girl, a relative after she turns 18 years of age.
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Several women’s rights activists, eminent citizens, intellectuals, writers, and artists had also penned an open letter to the chief justice demanding an apology and retraction of the remarks.
Referring to the earlier case, the bench said on Monday, ”We do not remember any case of marital rape was before us …We have the highest respect for women.” ”Our reputation is always at the hands of the bar,” the top court observed. The view was endorsed by lawyers appearing in the case.
Lawyer V K Biju, appearing for the petitioner in the case listed on Monday, said a section of the people is tarnishing the institution and some kind of mechanism is needed to deal with this.
The Bar Council of India had backed the Supreme Court and asked activists who had written to the CJI to withdraw his remarks to not ”scandalize” the highest judiciary and take ”political mileage” of its proceedings.
In the March 1 observations, the bench headed by Bobde was hearing a plea filed by the accused, serving as a technician in Maharashtra State Electricity Production Company Ltd, who had moved the apex court against a Bombay High Court February 5 order canceling his anticipatory bail.
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.