‘Compensation to rape survivor is govt’s obligation’

IN THE LAST HEARINGS, THE GOVERNMENT TOLD THE HC THAT IT WOULD PAY ₹2 LAKH TO THE GIRL AS THE INCIDENT SEEMED TO BE OF ‘CONSENSUAL NATURE’

MUMBAI: Rape survivors are not beggars and giving compensation to women victims of crime is the state’s obligation and not charity, the Bombay high court said on Wednesday, terming the Maharashtra government’s attitude as “ruthless”.

A division bench of chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice GS Kulkarni was hearing a petition filed by a 14-year-old rape victim, seeking ₹3 lakh as compensation under the government’s ‘Manodhairya Yojana’.

The girl, a resident of suburban Borivali, alleged that she was raped by a man who had promised to marry her. The bench was on Wednesday informed that after the girl filed the petition in October last year, a sum of ₹1 lakh was given to her by the government as compensation. In the last hearings, the government had told HC that it would pay ₹2 lakh compensation to the girl as the incident seems to be of “consensual nature”.

Irked with this, the HC on Wednesday said a 14-year-old cannot be expected to understand and take such mature decisions and realise the consequences. “We don’t like how the government is approaching the issue. This is a very heartless and ruthless attitude. Unless the government starts thinking and taking decisions in such matters from its heart and soul, nothing will happen,” Chellur said.

The HC asked Mumbai suburban deputy collector, present in court, as to how he would feel if something of this nature happened to his kith and kin.