SC grants temporary relief to rape case accused; CJI asks whether he will marry victim

On Monday, a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by CJI SA Bobde granted interim protection from arrest to the accused in a rape case for a period of 4 weeks. It was hearing the plea of 23-year-old government servant Mohit Subhash Chavan, whose anticipatory bail was cancelled by the Bombay High Court. Intriguingly, the CJI asked Chavan's lawyer Anand Langde whether his client was ready to marry the rape victim. During the hearing, the advocate submitted that Chavan will be suspended from government service if he is arrested in connection with this case.

Stressing that the accused should have thought this through before seducing and raping the woman, CJI SA Bobde clarified that the bench was not forcing Chavan to marry her. After taking instructions from his client, Langde informed the court that the petitioner had already married someone else. Moreover, he added that the victim had turned down Chavan's marriage offer previously. Dismissing the petition, the apex court bench comprising the CJI, Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian gave him the liberty to seek regular bail. 

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What is the case about?

Based on the complaint of the victim filed on December 17, 2019, an FIR was registered under Sections 376, 417 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 4 and 12 of the POSCO Act. After the Additional Sessions Judge, Jalgaon granted Chavan anticipatory bail, the aggrieved woman approached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay HC. Revealing that the accused is her distant relative, she alleged that he started stalking her when she was studying in the 9th standard in 2014-15. Moreover, she accused him of repeatedly raping her and threatening her of consequences if this was disclosed.

When the victim along with her mother and a social worker tried to lodge a police complaint initially, Mohit Chavan's mother persuaded them against it by assuring that she would accept her as her daughter-in-law. Furthermore, it has been alleged that the victim's mother was forced to write on a stamp paper that there was an affair between the two and they had indulged in sex with her consent. While it was promised that the accused would marry the victim after she completes 18 years of age, he backed off from the promise following which an FIR was registered.

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Setting aside the order of Additional Sessions Judge, Jalgaon which Justice Mangesh Patil of Bombay HC as "perverse, arbitrary and capricious", he observed, "The approach of the learned Judge from such a reasoning clearly shows his utter lack of sensitivity in such serious matters. Inspite of having noted that the applicant was still a minor when respondent No.2 had sexually exploited her and inspite of observing that her consent would be immaterial, he has concluded that it was a consensual relation. Astonishingly, merely because she has mentioned in the FIR about use of contraceptive by respondent No.2, the learned Judge has jumped to the conclusion that she was having sufficient maturity. The height is committed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge even to record an observation that there is a possibility of false implication of respondent No.2."

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