In what could very well be an unprecedented incident, the Supreme Court on Tuesday this week, questioned the antecedents of two rape victims in open Court in full view of lawyers and media, reports The Hindu..The incident happened in court room 2 before a Bench comprising Justice TS Thakur and Justice AK Goel in a petition filed by two ladies alleging sexual assault and rape by henchmen of industrialist Navin Jindal and seeking a CBI investigation into the allegations..When the matter was initially heard on Monday this week, Justice Thakur had observed that the allegations in the petition are of a serious nature and had summoned Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to court. Subsequently, advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, appearing for the victims, had agreed to produce the victims in court so that the court could speak to them..Justice Thakur had observed at the end of the hearing that,.“There is something wrong somewhere. We don’t know where.”.However, what happened the next day when the women appeared before the Court was a bolt out of the blue. Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for Jindal, told the Court that it should not order an investigation without ascertaining the antecedents of the two women. Justice Thakur, then, proceeded to bombard the women with questions in full view of lawyers, litigants and media persons..The queries included why they took lift from strangers prior to the alleged incident in 2013, who advised them to approach the Supreme Court and whether their families were aware of the fact that they were in Delhi and whether they had told their husbands about what had happened to them..Unsatisfied with their answers, the Court was inclined to dismiss the petition. However, on a request by ML Sharma, the court allowed them to withdraw the petition with the liberty to approach the appropriate forum..The conduct of the Bench is being viewed as a serious infraction of various provisions of criminal law as well as its own judgments.
In what could very well be an unprecedented incident, the Supreme Court on Tuesday this week, questioned the antecedents of two rape victims in open Court in full view of lawyers and media, reports The Hindu..The incident happened in court room 2 before a Bench comprising Justice TS Thakur and Justice AK Goel in a petition filed by two ladies alleging sexual assault and rape by henchmen of industrialist Navin Jindal and seeking a CBI investigation into the allegations..When the matter was initially heard on Monday this week, Justice Thakur had observed that the allegations in the petition are of a serious nature and had summoned Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to court. Subsequently, advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, appearing for the victims, had agreed to produce the victims in court so that the court could speak to them..Justice Thakur had observed at the end of the hearing that,.“There is something wrong somewhere. We don’t know where.”.However, what happened the next day when the women appeared before the Court was a bolt out of the blue. Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for Jindal, told the Court that it should not order an investigation without ascertaining the antecedents of the two women. Justice Thakur, then, proceeded to bombard the women with questions in full view of lawyers, litigants and media persons..The queries included why they took lift from strangers prior to the alleged incident in 2013, who advised them to approach the Supreme Court and whether their families were aware of the fact that they were in Delhi and whether they had told their husbands about what had happened to them..Unsatisfied with their answers, the Court was inclined to dismiss the petition. However, on a request by ML Sharma, the court allowed them to withdraw the petition with the liberty to approach the appropriate forum..The conduct of the Bench is being viewed as a serious infraction of various provisions of criminal law as well as its own judgments.
