Produce rape accused in court to see if compromise possible: Gujarat HC judge

Following the advocate’s submission, Justice Dave inquired where the rape accused is, to which the advocate responded that he is in jail. Justice Dave then said, “Is there any chance of compromise?” to which the advocate responded in the negative, saying that the two are labourers and he had tried to see if a compromise can be reached as an officer of the court but the conclusion was a no.

At this juncture, the additional public prosecutor intervened and said the judge’s queries are “pragmatic”. He said, “Something said in good faith is unnecessarily taken the other way,” indicating at Justice Dave’s remark an earlier hearing where he had suggested that the petitioner’s advocate read the Manusmriti. He said that girls would already have their first child back then by the age of 17. Justice Dave had also remarked that a few months less than the age of 18 should not matter and had stated that he will not allow the termination if medically both the minor and the foetus are found to be healthy.

Following the additional public prosecutor’s clarification, Justice Dave said, “The APP is saying that if something comes from the court, the people are criticising you…but one thing I may say, judge should be like Sthita Pragna the definition of which is given in Shrimad Bhagvad Gita chapter 2, shloka 54 to 72. And the judge has to be like that. So praising or criticising, one should ignore both the things.”

He said, “One thing is also going in my mind that if the accused is behind the bar, I may call him. Let me ask him….Let me ascertain from this boy…At present I’m not disclosing, we will consider tomorrow. There are so many government schemes, policies are there…we’re just thinking of possibilities..there should not be any difficulty given the type of good policies and schemes (that exist).”

The matter has been posted for Friday with a direction that the accused be presented before the court at 4 pm.