"Judges who are from old school and patriarchal need to be sensitised," Attorney General KK Venugopal tells Supreme Court

Judges, who are "old school" and "patriarchal" in their outlook, need to be sensitised so that they do not pass orders objectifying women in cases of sexual violence, Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The Central government's top law officer also suggested mandatory training for all lawyers on gender sensitisation for a period of two to three years.

"Judges who are from the old school and are patriarchal needs to be sensitized. All lawyers should undergo a training of two to three years with regard to gender sensitization.Teachers should be dedicated to this subject and be taught to them. Sensitization of judges by State Judicial Academies is needed," Venugopal said.

The submissions were made in a petition filed by Supreme Court advocate Aparna Bhat and eight other women lawyers challenging a July 30 bail condition imposed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court as per which a man accused of sexual assault was asked to get a Rakhi tied on him by the victim.

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice AM Khanwilkar reserved orders in the petition after hearing all the parties.

"The applicant along with his wife shall visit the house of the complainant with Rakhi thread / band on 03rd August, 2020 at 11:00 am with a box of sweets and request the complainant- Sarda Bai to tie the Rakhi band to him with the promise to protect her to the best of his ability for all times to come. He shall also tender Rs. 11,000/- (Rs. Eleven Thousand Only) to the complainant as a customary ritual usually offered by the brothers to sisters on such occasion and shall also seek her blessings," the High Court had said in its order.

The petition by the nine woman lawyers had cited orders from other High Courts as well to highlight the non-empathetic approach of judges while dealing with cases of sexual violence.

The plea contended that such judgments from High Courts would end up trivializing such heinous offence and that "there is a strong likelihood that such observations and directions may result in normalizing what is essentially a crime and has been recognized to be so by the law."

Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh appearing for the petitioners submitted on Wednesday that whenever any High Court, sessions court or magistrate court grants a bail involving a sexual violence against a women or child, "no observation should be made or condition imposed (on the prosecutrix)."

The AG submitted that when an accused is granted bail in cases of sexual violence and is a neighbour of victim then protection needs to be given so that acid throwing instances or witness coercion does not take place.

During the previous hearing, the Supreme Court had sought the assistance of Venugopal and issued notice to him to elicit his suggestions.

Pursuant to the same, Venugopal submitted a written note to the Supreme Court on December 1 suggesting that increasing women judges in judiciary could help in correcting the non-empathetic approach of judges in cases of sexual violence.

"Improving the representation of women in the judiciary could also go a long way towards a more balanced and empathetic approach in cases involving sexual violence. For instance, this Court (SC) only has 2 women judges, as against a sanctioned strength of 34 judges. There has never been a female Chief Justice of India," his written submissions read.

The AG suggested the following measures to improve the strength of women in judiciary:

i. Direct collection of data to determine the number of women judges in the lower judiciary

ii. Direct collection of data to determine the number of women judges in tribunals

iii. Direct collection of data to determine number of senior designates by all High Courts, year wise.

iv. Ensure greater representation of women at all levels of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court.

The Central government's top law officer also pointed out that there is no course on gender that is taught in law schools compulsorily and that some law schools have the subject either as a specialization or as an elective.

"Equally, the All India Bar Examination does not contain even a single question or section relating to gender sensitization. The Bar Council of India may take necessary steps in this regard," the AG submitted.