No requirement in law to make rape victim party in accused’s bail plea: Amicus to Delhi HC
The court was hearing the bail plea of a man accused of raping a minor under IPC’s Section 376 as well as provisions of the Pocso Act.
4 min read
A single judge bench of Anup Jairam Bhambhani had said on January 16 that a victim or complainant is not ordinarily required to be impleaded in such cases and appointed John as an Amicus Curiae to take a "considered view" on this aspect. (File) Senior advocate Rebecca Mammen John appointed as Amicus Curiae submitted before the Delhi High Court Tuesday that there is no requirement in law to make the victim of sexual assault a party in the bail plea of the accused.
A single judge bench of Anup Jairam Bhambhani had said on January 16 that a victim or complainant is not ordinarily required to be impleaded in such cases and appointed John as an Amicus Curiae to take a “considered view” on this aspect. John has been asked to assist the court on “whether the requirement of giving intimation to a victim/prosecutrix/informant as contained in section 439(1-A) Cr.P.C. read with Delhi High Court Practice Directions dated 24.09.2019 to enable her to be heard on a bail petition also requires the victim/prosecutrix/informant to be impleaded as a party-respondent to a bail petition and/or a criminal appeal, particularly in light of the recent Supreme Court judgment in Jagjeet Singh & Ors. vs. Ashish Mishra @ Monu & Anr”.
On Tuesday, John submitted while there is a requirement to issue notice to the victim under Section 439 (1-A) Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) so that she can be heard during the bail hearing of the accused “however, there is no requirement for impleading her”. She also sought time to file written submissions and documents in the matter and the HC thereafter listed the matter for hearing of the bail plea on February 16.
Justice Bhambhani had previously observed that “maintaining confidentiality and “privacy of a victim in sexual offences is a mandate of the law” under Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. Under IPC’s Section 228A, disclosing the identity of a victim of sexual assault is punishable with imprisonment for upto two years. Section 23 of the Pocso Act gives the procedure for media prohibiting it from disclosing the identity of a minor victim and a violation of the same is punishable with imprisonment not less than six months.
The court was hearing the bail plea of a man accused of raping a minor under IPC’s Section 376 as well as provisions of the Pocso Act. The accused’s counsel had submitted in the previous hearing that he was specifically asked by the Registry to make the victim a party-respondent in the matter, which is why she was added to the matter as respondent No. 2.
Earlier, the court had sent a query to the registrar to inform the court if there are any judgment or practice directions which require the “impleadment of a victim/prosecutrix/informant as a respondent (even if anonymised) in bail applications or criminal appeals relating to sexual offences under the IPC and/or the POCSO Act”.
The court had asked the registrar to answer the query considering that the “identity of the victim/prosecutrix is supposed to be protected and kept confidential in all such proceedings” while provisions of CrPC and practice directions dated September 24, 2019, issued by the Delhi High Court “only require that the victim/informant or any person authorized be heard at the time of hearing of a bail application for certain offences”.
During the last hearing, the registrar had informed the court that “previously verbal directions were given by Hon’ble Court that the victim/complainant be arrayed in the Memo of Parties as a respondent after hiding the identity of the victim”. He referred to a February 2022 order of the High Court in the Rakesh Bhatnagar vs State (Govt) of the NCT of Delhi to state that the “practice of requiring that the victim/prosecutrix/informant be impleaded as respondent in bail petitions and criminal appeals relating to sexual offences under the Indian Penal Code and/or the Pocso Act, is being implemented in compliance with the aforesaid directions”.
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