Paras Gupta, Week 11

This is an open letter by Professor Upendra Baxi, Vasudha Dhagamwar, Raghunath Kelkar and Lotika Sarkar to Chief Justice of India on September 16^th 1979. This letter concerns the horrific injustice in the case of Tukaram v. State of Maharastra. 

The letter started off with the facts and then the ruling of case in session case first in which the accused Tukaram was acquitted which was overturned by Bombay High Court in which the court. Futher the judgement of the High Court was reversed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court Of India. 

The reasoning given by Judge Koshal was that no injury was found in the medical report and therefore the claim that there was stiff resistance by the girl. Secondly, the Court does not believe in the testimony of the girl. 

Several questions of importance were raised by the professors regarding the judgement passed and the rationale of Judge Koshal (i) Why were the doors shut and lights turned off, (ii) Medical reports were conducted on the girl for the purpose of knowing whether resistance was there from the girl but why no medical reports be conducted on the accused, (iii) Why the court focuses on the third component of section 375 of IPC but not understanding the section as a whole and then coming to a conclusion? (iv) Why court has a theory for why the semen marks are found in the girl’s clothes but no theory on how semen marks were found on Ganpat’s trouser?

The Court give no consideration on the factor like the lack of knowledge of legal rights and the difficulty in approaching the legal services, age of the victim, socio-economic consideration and the mindset of the poor people when they are in police station. A case like this breaks the aspiration for the protection of human right. It highlights the male dominant culture in the country. 

The letter ended with the appeal by the professors to reconsider the judgement. The professors don’t deny the fact that Tukaram might be not guilty they want the Court to reconsider the reasoning of the Court and if they have to acquit the accused, they should with a better and fair reasoning. So that the faith in justice be prevailed in country and the future for betterment judicial protection of human rights at grassroots level in India at the turn of the century.