Rahul Desarda: Week 13

Open Letter to CJI

The letter under discussion was written by eminent law professors to highlight the gross miscarriage of justice by the Supreme Court of India in Tukaram v. State of Maharashtra (1979) to the then Chief Justice of India. In this case, the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s decision which found several discrepancies in the trial court’s decision. Mathura, a 16-year-old girl was not only called in the police station to record her statement in a kidnapping case but was made to stay even after her acquaintances left. Later, one constable Ganpat raped her while head constable Tukaram fondled her private parts. However, the Supreme Court ignored all the circumstantial evidence to imply that Mathura and Ganpat had consensual sexual intercourse since there was no evidence indicating stiff resistance met my Mathura and the fact that the medical report showed that Mathura had sexual intercourse quite a few times before the incident was sufficient to taint her character. These eminent jurists, through the open letter, brought to light several issues concerning women and their security. They also pointed out that in violation of the provision of Code of Criminal Procedure, Mathura was made to stay in the police station at the “dead hour of the night”. Further, they express their concern over the prejudice against premarital sex and the dominant notion that blames the victim (the female in this case) than the perpetrator (the male in this case).