Women8217;s group challenges HC verdict

PUNE, Nov 12: Neelam Gorhe, president, Stree Adhar Kendra, and a fiery activist for women's rights, is gearing up to file an independent app...

PUNE, Nov 12: Neelam Gorhe, president, Stree Adhar Kendra, and a fiery activist for women8217;s rights, is gearing up to file an independent appeal against the recent High Court judgement in the Jalgaon sex scandal acquitting the prime accused Pandit Sapkale.

She told The Indian Express that she is contemplating the appeal on behalf of a group of women8217;s organisations which will be independent of the appeal the state government is planning.

She said she has already issued a memo to the Chief Minister and Home Minister and has sought the assurance that an appeal will be filed in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, eminent city-based jurist S.P.Sathe, former principal of the ILS Law College has come out strongly against the Bombay High Court judgement.

8220;Sociologically when such a person gets acquitted by the High Court, society begins to lose faith in the process of justice,8221; he said when contacted by The Indian Express. 8220;In all such cases it is the sessions court that sees the actual evidence and pass on the findings of facts to the higher court which does not have the time to actually see evidence. In this case, the high court judgement is wrong because the high court has merely reassessed the evidence,8221; he adds.

8220;In a number of decisions, the Supreme Court has observed that delay in reporting the crime of rape should not be held against the victim,8221; explains Sathe. 8220;When a woman is raped she is psychologically broken, it cannot be expected that she will report it immediately. She has lost her self-respect, she is ashamed, she is shy of speaking to anyone, even her mother, about it. That should not weaken the evidence.8221;

8220;The judgement of the High Court suffers from such defects. It is the fittest case for appeal,8221; feels the jurist. In this particular case, the counsel for the accused had repeatedly based his defence on the delay in filing of complaint by the women victims which was as much as seven months in some cases.

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Sathe also adds that findings of the trial court are interfered with only if the HC feels that the judgement delivered has been perverse8217;. 8220;In legal term perverse means a judgement which no reasonable person should have arrived at.8221;

B.J. Misar, former Principal Secretary, Home, Government of Maharashtra, looks at the Jalgaon case as a reason for legislators to overhaul the existing law.8220;The acquittals are final,8221; he agrees. 8220;But we have learnt lessons from that and the result is the proposed Women8217;s Protection Act that has been drafted by the Maharashtra Women8217;s Commission, that makes provisions for immediate sustenance of security of complainant and witnesses and till there is need for it.8221;

If these new measures come into force then the Jalgaon case will not be repeated, says Misar.