{"id":34971,"date":"2018-10-31T14:37:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T09:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34971"},"modified":"2018-10-31T14:37:06","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T09:07:06","slug":"a-blinkered-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-blinkered-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"A Blinkered Justice:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/editorials\/a-blinkered-justice-rape-laws-victim-shaming-sonepat-4859519\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Blinkered Justice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Issue<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The article examines Punjab and Haryana High Court\u2019s observations in an order in a rape case, characterising the victim as a person with a \u201cpromiscuous attitude and a voyeuristic mind\u201d. The observation by the High court seems disturbing and disappointing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>About the case<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The case relates to a rape incident that took place in an institute of higher learning, leading to the conviction of the three accused by a lower court. The three had appealed for bail in the high court. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bench used language about the young victim that feeds into the tendency of victim blaming and goes against all principles of natural justice. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The HC has said that \u201cit was essential to balance the concerns of the victim, demands of the society and law and element of reformatory and rehabilitative justice\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The observations have been surprising and disappointing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Role of courts and judgement of High Court<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the last few years, the courts have been in the vanguard of the fight against crimes against women. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is thanks to the courts that India has today the <\/span>Vishaka guidelines<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to deal with sexual harassment at the workplace. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There have been several judgements by the Supreme Court restating the principles of justice and pointing out that rape is not just a crime against an individual but against society. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The high court bench\u2019s observations that the victim\u2019s narrative, seek to suggest that the young woman enjoyed a certain comfort level with the offenders. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that is precisely why the rape in this case is even more horrific, because it shows a betrayal of trust and faith that the woman had reposed in the offenders. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rape is not about the sexuality of a woman, or about sexual intercourse; it is about non-consensual, forced sex, usually establishing a power asymmetry between the victim and the perpetrator. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supreme Court has, in the past, refused to accept contextualisation as grounds for mitigation of the offence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Observation<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If there is really a \u201cnefarious world of youngsters\u201d out there where, as the court notes in its judgement, there is no comprehension of relationships \u201cbased on respect and understanding\u201d, it is all the more reason to offer greater protection of law to the victim. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The above cannot be a strong ground to sympathise with the perpetrators.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Blinkered Justice:\u00a0 Issue The article examines Punjab and Haryana High Court\u2019s observations in an order in a rape case, characterising the victim as a person with a \u201cpromiscuous attitude and a voyeuristic mind\u201d. The observation by the High court seems disturbing and disappointing. About the case The case relates to a rape incident that&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-blinkered-justice\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A Blinkered Justice:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704817200},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}