Lawyers ask Patna High Court Judges to ensure just treatment of survivors of violent sexual crimes in Araria District Court, Bihar

Letter from Lawyers to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Patna High Court and other Hon’ble Judges
Need for urgent and systemic changes in the treatment of survivors of violent sexual crimes in the Araria District Court, Bihar 
15th July, 2020
To
Hon’ble the Chief Justice of Patna High Court and other Hon’ble Judges:

Subject: Need for urgent and systemic changes in the treatment of survivors of violent sexual crimes in the Araria District Court.

Lordships:
We, the undersigned are lawyers practicing in different places across the country, who also believe in creating a robust criminal justice system, which is responsive to the needs of survivors of violent sexual crimes. We have received news of a very disturbing incident in distant Araria, and involving a 22-year-old, who was violently gang-raped on July 6th, and her two caregivers/friends. While recording her S.164 statement on July 10th, the learned magistrate perceived her disoriented state of mind as a personal affront and remanded her (and her two caregivers) into custody for contempt of court. The three have been remanded into judicial custody in Dalsinghsarai Jail, about 240Kms from Araria. The survivor’s details, including her father’s name and full address have also been disclosed in the local press. The news reports cite the Court staff as having provided the details.
At this stage, we submit that even without going into the various versions of the event that will invariably be brought before your Lordships, there is a need to infuse the incident with some sensitivity and view it from that perspective: it was the fourth day since the incident of gangrape. The survivor ‘A’ was completely distraught and also very disoriented. She was not eating or sleeping, and also in physical pain. In the course of the four days, she had had to repeat her experience to sundry personnel, often only for voyeuristic purposes. She had been totally dependent, emotionally, on her caregivers since the incident, and they were also traumatized and exhausted. We respectfully submit that any perceived disrespect must be viewed from this perspective. Victims and their caregivers deserve extra care and sensitivity.
Rather than understanding the fragile state of the three people, they were first remanded to police custody. It may be pointed out that no Covid test was conducted on the survivor, even though she had been gang-raped by several strangers. Within hours, and while the three were in police custody, exaggerated accounts of what had transpired during the proceedings were reported on electronic media, together with complete details about the survivor, including her father’s name and her complete address. Shockingly, one such report also carries a photograph of the reporter sitting in the filing section and inspecting her file, with the court clerk and other staff looking on. [Annexure A]
The Reports published on July 11th in the local papers also state that no FIR has yet been filed in the ‘contempt case’.  It was only at around 12:30PM on July 11th that two witnesses were asked to sign on a blank arrest memo and they were informed that FIR no. 61/2020, Araria Mahila Thana, had been filed under the Contempt of Courts Act, which is not applicable to the magistrate’s court; also under S.353 of the IPC (which is most implausible, even if we accept the facts at face value that the survivor had repeatedly demanded that the S.164 statement be read out to her by her caregiver and not by the learned magistrate since she could not understand him); Ss. 228 and 188 (both bailable). The three were produced in court and remanded into judicial custody to the District Jail in Dalsinghsarai, 240Kms away.
We submit that the remand into judicial custody is excessive and harsh given the circumstances. The survivor’s emotional state is extremely fragile and we fear that the separation from her caregivers and incarceration will have an adverse affect on her health.
It has also resulted in the original case pertaining to gangrape (FIR 59/2020, ArariaMahila Thana) having been put on the backburner, while all attention is focused on the alleged contempt. In popular perception too, the survivor is being maligned: ‘if she is ‘bold’ enough to raise her voice at the magistrate, then of course she is ‘bold’ enough to invite attention’. We pray that your Lordships intervene into the matter as it displays a complete lack of sensitivity to a victim of violent sexual crime and to her caregivers.
Signed by, 
Sl.No.
Name
City/ Place of practice
1
Sr Adv Indira Jaising
Delhi Supreme Court of India
2
Adv Prashant Bhushan
New Delhi
3
Adv Vrinda Grover
Delhi
4
Sr Adv Rebecca John
Delhi
5
Sr Adv Mukul Talwar
New Delhi
6
Sr Adv Basant Kumar Choudhary
Patna High court
7
Adv N D Pancholi
Delhi
8
Adv Ashok Agarwal
Delhi
9
Sr Adv Gayatri Singh
Bombay High Court
10
Adv Samir Ali Khan
New Delhi
11
Adv Veena Gowda
Mumbai
12
Adv Shomona Khanna
Supreme Court of India
13
Adv Amit Anand Tiwari
Supreme Court of India
14
Adv Sumita Hazarika
New Delhi
15
Adv Susan Abraham
Mumbai
16
Adv Rachana Joshi Issar
Delhi
17
Adv Roma Malik
New Delhi
18
Adv Indira Unninayyar
Delhi / High Court / Supreme Court / Trial Courts
19
Adv Anubha Rastogi
Mumbai
20
Adv Poonam Kaushik
Delhi District courts
21
Adv Flavia Agnes
Mumbai
22
Adv Vasudha Nagraj
Hyderabad
23
Adv Sheela Ramanathan
Bangalore
24
Adv MaharukhAdenwalla
Mumbai
25
Adv Nousheen Yousuf
Mumbai
26
Adv Nabeela Tareen
Srinagar
27
Adv Nanita Sharma
New Delhi
28
Adv Stanley John
Trivandrum
29
Adv Vinay K Sreenivasa 
Bangalore
30
Adv Maitreyi Krishnan
Bangalore
31
Adv Raghavendra Kumar
Delhi
32
Adv Lara Jesani
Mumbai
33
Adv Mangla Verma
New Delhi
34
Adv Cheryl D'Souza
Delhi
35
Adv Apar Gupta
Delhi
36
Adv PyoliSwatija
Delhi
37
Adv Piyush Kumar Pandey
Advocate on Record, Patna High Court
38
Adv Bijaya Chanda
Alipore Court, West Bengal
39
Adv Shalini Gera
High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur
40
Adv Isha Khandelwal
Bombay
41
Adv Nikita Agarwal
New Delhi
42
Arunima Bhattacharjee
New Delhi
43
Anand Darshan
New Delhi
44
Bulbul Das
New Delhi
45
Mary Mitzy Mayne
New Delhi
46
Nazia Parveen
New Delhi
47
Omanakuttan K K
New Delhi
48
Adv Payal Gaikwad
New Delhi
49
Ishita Yadu
Lucknow
50
Raja Rabbi Hussain
New Delhi
51
Veena Gowda
Mumbai
52
Shahab Ahmad
New Delhi
53
Bhoomika D. Pandhare
Thane
54
Eklavya Vasudev
New Delhi
55
Burjis Shabir
New Delhi
56
Adv Ekta Verma
New Delhi
57
Tanya Sharma
New Delhi
58
Amit kumar
New Delhi
59
Remya Raj
New Delhi
60
Ayush
New Delhi
61
Chandan Kumar
New Delhi
62
Dipika Sahani
Mumbai
63
Bharathan Chandrasekaran
Delhi University
64
Dhananjay
Varanasi
65
Sagarika Parab
Mumbai
66
Priyamwada Sinha
New Delhi
67
Abdul Gaffar Advocate
Delhi
68
Raghav Kacker
Delhi
69
Kumaresh Trivedi
Ahmedabad
70
Shailza
Chandigarh
71
Prachi Jain
Delhi
72
Amala Dasarathi
New Delhi
73
Abu Nasar
Patna High Court
74
Khushboo Pareek
New Delhi
75
Annie Jain
Guwahati/Bombay
76
Nand Kumar Sagar
Patna
77
Prajwal K Aradhya
Bangalore
78
Samhita Mehra
Mumbai
79
Sangram Chinnappa
Bombay
80
Bhakta Patnaik
Mumbai
81
Aditi
Himachal Pradesh
82
Priyanka shukla
Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
83
Pranav arora
Delhi
84
Zarif
Noida
85
Rachna Bahadur Advocate
New Delhi
86
Afreen Khan
Mumbai
87
PhilarisaNongpiur
New Delhi
88
Rashmi Priya
Mumbai
89
Anunayarsh
Delhi
90
VidushiSood
Chandigarh
91
Adv Rahul Shrivastava
M P Highcourt, Jabalpur
92
Puja
New Delhi
93
Poorna R
Bangalore
94
Reena Rao
Delhi
95
Sneh Lata
Delhi
96
Shivani Purohit
New Delhi
97
Shreshtha Das
Delhi
98
Namrata Kabra
Maharashtra and Goa
99
Rudrajit Ghosh
Delhi NCR
100
Deo Narayan Sen
Araria
101
Ashok Mishra
Araria
102
Geeta Sajjanshetty
Kalaburagi
103
Arun Kunar
Araria
104
Divya Jyoti Sen
Araria
105
Ananya Mukherjee
Delhi
106
Akshansh Ankit
Patna
107
Nidhi Rani
Mumbai
108
Rajni Soren
Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh High Court
109
Syed Tabeer Riyaz
Delhi
110
Ishani
New Delhi
111
Pranav Menon
Advocate, Delhi
112
Ad. Suresh rathaur
Varanasi
113
Rakesh Shukla
Delhi
114
Tanvi
Delhi-NCR
115
Sandhya
Delhi
116
Poorva
Chandigarh
117
Muskan Singhal
Chandigarh
118
Liz Mathew
New Delhi
119
Shobha
Delhi
120
Divya Srinivasan
Delhi
121
Agam Sharma
New Delhi
122
Amber Fatmi
Delhi
123
Surya Sanjay
Bangalore
124
Abhiti
Delhi
125
Anupradha Singh, Advocate
Supreme Court of India, Delhi
126
Harshad
Delhi
127
Zarif
Noida
128
Dushyant X
Delhi
129
Piyush Ranjan
Patna/Patna High Court
130
Shivani Mamgain
Uttarakhand
131
Jeevika S
Delhi
132
Rahul Maurya
Delhi
133
Alpana malik
New delhi
134
Disha Kharbanda
New Delhi
135
Disha Wadekar
Delhi
136
Gayatri Suman
Bilaspur ,chattisgarh
137
Shubhangi Singh
Lucknow
138
Mohammad Saad Khan
High Court of Delhi
139
Abeera Dubey
Mumbai
140
Qaseem
Lucknow
141
Shalu Nigam
Delhi
142
Rustam Kuraishi
Delhi
143
Kartavi
Delhi
144
Ishwarinishad advocate
Mahasamund
145
Shraddha
Hyderabad
146
Shruti
Delhi
147
Tanika Chandna
Delhi
148
WarishaFarasat
New delhi
149
Siddhartha Basu
Delhi/Bangalore
150
Shantanu
Delhi
151
Harsh Parashar
New Delhi
152
Soumya Mehrotra
Delhi
153
Sohail
Delhi
154
Kamlesh Kumar Mishra
Supreme court of India
155
Aarushi mahajan
Delhi
156
Adv Priyanka singh
Delhi,Saket court
157
Amita joseph
New delhi
158
SHYNA P A
High Court of Kerala
159
Kshatrshal Raj
Delhi/Supreme Court of India
160
Ritika chatterjee
Karnataka
161
Irshaan S. Kakar
New Delhi/ Chandigarh
162
Nishant Kumar
Patna and Delhi
163
Rachita Padwal
Mumbai
164
Kunal tiwary
Patna high court
165
Nayantara Roy
Delhi
166
Alka verma
Patna high court
167
Ranjana Vohra
Delhi
168
Saptashwa Singh
Patna High Court
169
Pulkit Prakash
New Delhi
170
Dev
Thrissur
171
Shubhashish Sharma
MUMBAI
172
Aishwarya Nabb
Delhi
173
LubnaNaaz
Supreme Court of India, Delhi
174
Harleenkaur
New Delhi and Punjab
175
Vivek Menon
Mumbai
176
Parijata Bhardwaj
Delhi
177
Devika.S
Chennai
178
Aditi
Mumbai
179
Abhishek Nath Tripathi
New Delhi
180
UjjainiChatterji
Delhi and Bombay
181
A.J. Jawad
Madras High Court
182
R Vigneshwar
Madras HC
183
Adv Mini Mathew
Mumbai
184
Leena Menghaney
New Delhi
185
Vishal Bhatia
Delhi
186
Shiv Bansal
Delhi
187
Rahul Beruar
Delhi
188
Rudrajyoti Nath Ray
New Delhi, Kolkata
189
Snigdha Tiwari
High Court Nainital
190
Karishma Maria
New Delhi
191
P C Tewari
Almora
192
Chandni Chawla
Mumbai
193
Malavika Parthasarathy
Bangalore
194
Nikita Sonavane
Bhopal
195
Ameya Bokil
Bhopal
196
Radhika
Delhi
197
Wasif Rahman Khan
Patna high court
198
Ankit Kulkarni
Bombay High Court
199
Talib Mustafa
Patna/ High Court of Judicature at Patna
200
Deepika
Faridabad
201
Adv Santosh Kumar Yadav
Patna civil court
202
Monika
Delhi
203
Runjun Dutta
Law Student
204
Hemant Ingle
Mumbai
205
S.Meenakshi
Chennai
206
Anshuman Upadhyay
Delhi
207
Sayed Imran Ghani
Civil court patna
208
Zaman Ali
Mumbai
209
Aditi Gupta
New Delhi
210
Mohit Singh
DELHI
211
Mitul Singh Rana
Hoshiarpur
212
Siddharth Seem
New Delhi
213
Gayatri Sharma
Delhi
214
Kumar Shashank Shekher
Delhi
215
Anne Panicker
Mumbai
216
Lousy George
Chennai
217
Prarthna Nanda
Mumbai
218
Saumya
Delhi
219
Anuj kumarroy
Civil court hazaribag
220
Adv Khemchand R Koshti
Guj. High Court, Ahmedabad
221
Brijesh Jasvantray Trivedi
Ahmedabad
222
Saurabh Bishwambhar
Patna High Court
223
Radhika Kolluru
Delhi High Court
224
Meera Sanghamitra
Hyderabad
225
Kamal Kishor
Patna
226
Brajesh Kumar
Delhi
227
Nawal kishor
Koderma
228
Md Modassir Shams
Patna
229
Nishant Sirohi
New Delhi
230
A P Josy
Sakti, Dt Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh
231
Saumya Maheshwari
Delhi
232
Deepak Singh
Delhi High Court
233
Prathibha S
Delhi
234
Tarun Agarwal
New Delhi
235
Anoop Kumaran
Thrissur, Keralam
236
Roma
New Delhi
237
Anupam Kirti
Delhi
238
Malar GP
Delhi
239
Govind
Delhi
240
Sumeet Kumar singh
Patna High Court
241
Anurag Bindal
New Delhi
242
Shivangi Rai
New Delhi
243
Manali Singhal
Delhi
244
Nandini Mitra
High Court at Calcutta
245
Aditya Kumar
New Delhi
246
Adv Savita Ali
Session Court Patna
247
MohdShaqir Hussain
Jammu
248
Madhurima
Kolkata
249
Dharmendra Kumar Mishra
Delhi
250
P. Kumar
Delhi.
251
Renuka Sahu
New Delhi
252
Angkit Bharadwaj
Guwahati
253
Liyi
New Delhi
254
Manshi Jaiswal
Lucknow
255
Ritika chatterjee
Karnataka
256
Praavita
Delhi
257
Somesh Chandra Jha
Delhi
258
Priyanka
Patna
259
Sachin
Delhi
260
Bharti Ali
New Delhi
261
Manju Sharma
Patna High Court
262
Aryan Batra
Kolkata
263
Ritika chatterjee
Karnataka
264
Iman Calcuttawala (Ms.)
Mumbai/Bombay High Court
265
Anuvinda
New Delhi
266
Ankur Gulyani Panda
New Delhi
267
Adv. Ijas Muhammed
Kottayam
268
Preeti Dash
Delhi
269
Megha Mehta
Bombay
270
Ritika chatterjee
Karnataka
271
NS Tanvi
Chennai
272
Aarushi mahajan
Delhi
273
Sayanti
Kolkata
274
Harsh Bora
New Delhi
275
Adv. Suraj Sanap
Bombay
276
Ashish Kumar
Delhi
277
Adv Nasreen Khan
Calcutta High Court
278
Shreyashi Sharma
Delhi
279
SagrikaSemwal
Delhi
280
Rudraksh
Delhi
281
Nikhilesh
Mumbai
282
Adv Sheik Moulali Basha
Supreme Court Of India
283
Aman Golechha
Mumbai
284
Shashwat
Delhi
285
Persis Sidhva
Mumbai
286
Aniket Aggarwal
New Delhi
287
Ashutosh Kumar Mishra
Delhi
288
Sukriti Khurana
New Delhi
289
KezhosanoKikhi
Kohima
290
Sindhu Saikrishnan
Bangalore
291
Adv Jacinta Saldanha
Mumbai
292
Sumi Ann Varkey
Kottayam
293
Mansi Sood
Delhi
294
Farhat
Mumbai
295
Vishnu
Delhi
296
Nishant Sirohi
New Delhi
297
AvaniChokshi
Bangalore
298
Pradeep Mandhyan
Mumbai
299
Kaustubh Gidh
Mumbai
300
Adv Akhil Joshi
Delhi
301
Vivekananda N
India
302
Haridya
Delhi
303
Radhika Kolluru
Delhi High Court
304
Mandeep singh
Chandigarh
305
Siddhartha
Delhi
306
Renu Mishra
Lucknow
307
Asha singh
Gurgaon
308
PreranaPriyanshu
Chennai
309
Adv. Shruti Narayan
Delhi
310
Steffi
Mumbai
311
Asha Rodiyal
Mumbai
312
A.J. Jawad
Madras High Court
313
Margaret Dsouza
Mumbai
314
Adv.Mallika Verma
Mumbai
315
RUKHSANA CHOUDHURY
DELHI
316
Deependra Kumar Mishra
Pratapgarh
317
Jacqueline
Mumbai
318
Nupur Raut
Mumbai
319
Payoshi
Bombay
320
Ragini A
Mumbai
321
Adv. Jahangir Alam
Delhi
322
Yuvraj Rathore
New Delhi
323
Babu K Y
Kanyakumari
324
Ranvir Singh
Delhi
325
Adv. Chitra Sundar
Mumbai
326
IpshitaBhuwania
Mumbai
327
Adv Shivani Bhate
Mumbai
328
Naomi Chandra
New delhi
329
Adv. Sheebapaul
Mumbai
330
K. Padma
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
331
Anupchand K Minj
Guwahati
332
Adv Ritu Rajkumari
New Delhi
333
Adv. Mani Gupta
New Delhi
334
Prerna Raj
Delhi
335
Som Dutta Sharma
Delhi
336
Adv Richa verma
Delhi
337
Adv Payal Gaikwad
Delhi
338
Theresia Parakkadan
Mumbai
339
IkshakuBezbaroa
Bangalore
340
Shantanu
Delhi
341
Adv. Kokila Parmar
Delhi
342
Adv. Roshni shah
Nashik
343
Anjana Gosain
New Delhi
344
Shalini Nair
New Delhi
345
Kirti Singh
Delhi
346
Shubham Kaushal
Mumbai
347
Tanvi mane
Mumbai
348
Narender
Delhi
349
Adv K. Gayatri
Pune
350
Vivek Menon
Mumbai
351
Harleen Singh
New Delhi
352
Bidisha Mahanta
Assam
353
Arul
Bangalore
354
MV Swaroop
Chennai
355
UrmiChudgar
Delhi
356
Manishaa Thakur
Delhi
357
Adv Kriti Kakkar
Delhi
358
Sudha Ambastha
Patna High Court
359
Milinda Sharma
New Delhi
360
Clara
Guwahati
361
Aditi Kumar
New Delhi
362
Shashibala Verma
Patna High Court
363
Sumita Kapil
New Delhi
364
Pushpa Sinha
Patna High Court
365
Rahul Vardhan
Mumbai
366
Nalinu
Delhi
367
Fidel Sebastian
Delhi
368
Rohan Seth
Delhi
369
Irfan Engineer
Mumbai
370
Kruthika NS
Bengaluru
371
OlullahLaskar
Guwahati
372
Adv Kaushik Gupta
Kolkata
373
Sarada Mahesh
Bengaluru
374
Anirban Tarafder
Kolkata
375
Md. Alauddin
Barrackpore Court, Kolkata
376
Falakyar Askari
The High Court of Judicature at Patna

Also See:

Comments

R N Jha said…
The Judiciary itself is on trial. I desh it wins.
Anonymous said…
Collective responsibility helps and India raise up to stand against child sexual abuse.

Popular posts from this blog

Greek, French Elections Sound Death Knell for Austerity

Home Ministry’s Population Register Worse than Prisoner Identification

Open letter to Kim Jong-un urging a new era in North Korea