Arnav Joshi Week 11

I shall be summarising 'Open Letter to Chief Justice of India' The letter discusses the case of Tukaram v. State of Maharashtra. It starts off by briefly examining the facts of the case and the judgements passed by the High Court and Supreme Court. The letter is basically an appeal for the case to be re-examined by a larger bench. The letter addresses that a compromise was made on human rights by women when the Supreme Court passes its judgement, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The decision of the Supreme Court did not justify as to why the factors which were weighed in the High Court's decision earlier were not even considered. The Supreme Court had only considered the third component of section 375 of IPC which says that it's considered rape with a woman's consent, when "her consent has been obtained by putting her in fear of death or hurt." The second component of section 375 talks about when rape occurs without the woman's consent. There is a clear difference in law, and in common sense between the words submission or consent. Consent involves submission but thee inverse is not necessarily true. The absence of resistance is not necessarily an indicator of consent. The issue which was presented before the court was whether an act committed with her consent was under fear of death. From the facts, it can be established that the consent given was under fear and constituted as submission and hence would not consent. The Court in its order gave no consideration to the socio-economic status, the lack of knowledge of legal rights, the age of the victim, the lack of access to legal services and the fear complex which haunts the poor and exploited Indian police stations.