Madhya Pradesh High Court order directing accused to get Rakhi tied by victim as a condition for bail set aside by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside an order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which had directed a man accused of sexual assault to get Rakhi tied on his wrist by the victim as a condition for bail (Aparna Bhat v. State of Madhya Pradesh).

The judgment was rendered by a Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and S Ravindra Bhat on a petition by Supreme Court advocate Aparna Bhat and eight other woman lawyers challenging a July 2020 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The Bench also issued a slew of directions to be followed by lower courts while dealing with bail petitions in matters relating to crimes against women.

The MP High Court had directed the man accused of having outraged the modesty of a woman to present himself before the complainant so that she may tie a "rakhi" on his wrist to be eligible for bail.

As per the order passed by Justice Rohit Arya, the bail applicant and his wife were directed to visit the complainant's house on Raksha Bandhan day with a Rakhi thread and a box of sweets.

Apart from requesting the complainant to tie the Rakhi, which customarily denotes a brother-sister relationship, the applicant was also ordered to make a promise that he would protect the complainant to the best of his ability for all times to come.

Added to this, the bail applicant was ordered to give Rs. 11,000 to the complainant, as "usually offered by brothers to sisters" during Raksha Bandhan and to seek her blessings. Moreover, he was also directed to give an additional Rs. 5,000 to the complainant's son for the "purchase of clothes and sweets."

The plea before the Supreme Court 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."

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

The Court had issued notice to the Attorney General KK Venugopal on October 16, 2020 to elicit his views and suggestions on the issue.

The AG had then filed detailed written submissions on the steps that could be considered to correct the non-empathetic approach of judges in cases of sexual violence.

He submitted that 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.

He also suggested increasing women judges in judiciary as a measure that will address the non-empathetic approach adopted by judges.

The Supreme Court, he said, could consider highlighting the following in cases of crimes against women:

- Bail conditions should not mandate contact between the accused and the victim.

- Bail conditions must seek to protect the complainant from any harassment by the accused.

- Bail conditions must be free from stereotypical or parental notions of women and their place in society,and must strictly be in accordance with the requirements of the CrPC.

Importantly, Venugopal had suggested that courts should avoid suggesting a compromise between the accused and victim.

[Read Judgment]