A petitioner in the Bombay high court on Wednesday invited the ire of lawyers present in the court when he blamed women’s outfits for rape cases. Though the court allowed this petitioner to speak, other lawyers expressed anger and asked him to explain the rape of children.
As the division bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil was hearing a bunch of petitions on women’s safety, petitioner Chandrakanth Palav, a senior citizen, blamed women’s attire for increasing rape cases. He said that women these days wear tight clothes, which have led to the rise in rape cases.
Though the bench said, “We want to hear the common man’s views,” lawyers Rajeev Chavan, Mehrukh Adenwala, Madhav Jamdar and government pleaders P.P. Kakade and Geeta Shastri took objection to Mr Palav’s choice of words.
The lawyers said that Mr Palav’s argument puts the entire blame on the victim.They argued that if Mr Palav’s arguments are that the rape cases happen due to revealing clothes, then what about rapes of minors
Pleaders Kakade and Shashtri pointed out to court that the Justice Dharmadhikari committee set up to look into the issue of women safety called for a change in the mentality of men in order to curb crimes against women.
In the meantime, the court also asked the railway authorities to hold meeting with experts to find out a solution to install CCTV cameras on trains so that it could keep an eye on criminal activities.
