OTT porn content must be vetted: SC

The Justice J S Verma Committee had laid down that the law ought to specify that even a marital relationship could not be a defence against forced sexual intercourse

since there was no court stay against its streaming.

Unlike movies produced in India or abroad, which require the censor board's clearance before release in theatres, the OTT evolved in the complete lockdown conditions due to the pandemic. It, therefore, had no control over the content until the government slapped the regulations on the platforms last week.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's economic situation continues to worsen with each passing month as the country's exports have plunged for a successive second month to slightly over $2 billion in February 2021. As per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), contrary to over 4 per cent contraction in exports, the imports increased one-tenth to $4.6 billion last month on an annualised basis, which resulted in further widening of trade deficit by almost 24 per cent in February 2021 on a yearto-year basis.

Economists say that the latest plunge has proven that the recent peak in exports was the result of some external factors and policy measures, which includes 30 per cent currency devaluation. "The gap between imports and exports increased to $2.5 billion in February over a year ago, a jump of $486 million of 24 per cent", maintained PBS.

Exports had started picking up early in the current fiscal year and peaked up to

$2.4 billion in December, prompting a celebratory response from the ruling government. However, the shortterm achievement proved to be adversely affective as the exports again started falling down previous historic band of around $2 billion.

Experts say "every successive government has doled out billions of rupees in subsidies to the exporters every

year on account of cheap loans, electricity and gas. The exporters also pay a nominal tax on their income. Yet, they have failed and the government does not seem ready to review its flawed strategy of pampering few hundred exporters."

Exporters say that the increase in exports during the previous months was due to shifting of global trade from

China towards South Asian countries and replacing the dried out inventories by the buyers in the US and Europe after the global economy gradually started recovering from the effects of novel coronavirus. "One a monthto-month basis, the exports decreased over 4.5 per cent to $2.4 billion. There was a $97 million in export receipts in February as compared to the previous month. The imports also registered a decline of 5.2 per cent last month", the PBS added.

The ruling government of PM Imran Khan has already fallen short of its annual export target consistently in its first two years of ruling. For the current year, the government has set export target at $22.7 billion, which experts say will require a 6.2 per cent growth. "This seems like an uphill task, given the fact that the little growth in exports have been disputed by the central bank. Exports in the first six months were equal to only 72 per cent of the annual target", said economic expert Shahbaz Rana.

India badly needs its first woman Chief Justice of India (CJI) and this post could be filled by Justice B V Nagarathna of the Karnataka high court in 2027, if she is promptly elevated. This dire need raised its head yet again when Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde asked an alleged rapist-cum-Maharashtra government employee if he would marry his victim, who was a minor when he had repeatedly raped her. Such insensitive remarks in open court thwart the Supreme Court’s own judgments that rape is a diabolical act which cannot be settled by marriage.

In a separate case, CJI Bobde again asked: “When two persons are living as husband-andwife, however brutal the husband is, can you call sexual intercourse between them ‘rape’? The victim alleged that her rapist promised to marry her after raping her and she was “brutally and sexually abused” after marriage. The CJI reportedly stayed the arrest of both the alleged rapists for four weeks.

The learned CJI ignored that crimes like rape attract severe penalties under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013. The Justice J S Verma Committee laid down that the law ought to specify that even a marital relationship could not be a defence against forced sexual intercourse. Citing a judgment of the European Commission of Human Rights, the Verma Committee endorsed the conclusion that “a rapist remains a rapist, regardless of his relationship with the victim.”

The CJI’s remarks imply a wife is chattel who must meekly surrender her body to satiate her husband’s lust. This is why firebrand CPM MP Brinda Karat immediately wrote to CJI Bobde demanding he retract his remarks. This comes on the heels of another fiery speech delivered by firebrand Trinamool Congress MP Mohua Moitra disparaging the former CJI Ranjan Gogoi who, she alleged, had exonerated himself of a charge of sexual harassment.

Marriage is based on trust, not lust without love. Leaving that aside, it is true that women are sometimes their own greatest enemies, as is borne out by the three verdicts of Justice Pushpa Ganediwala in the POCSO cases, which cost her confirmation as a high court judge. Even the dissenting verdict of Justice Indu Malhotra that the Supreme Court should not venture into adjudicating whether women of menstrual age should be allowed into the Sabarimala temple or not is disconcerting.

A lawyer who downloaded a mugshot of a woman magistrate and sent her birthday wishes will now face a criminal charge of obscenity and other charges under the Information Technology Act. The woman magistrate has overreacted to what at best may be a misdemeanour but not a criminal offence. Leaving that aside, there is no doubt that some judges do have a patriarchal mindset, evidenced by CJI Bobde’s insensitive remarks.

This was reinforced in a 2013 case of Shambhu versus State of Haryana, where the Supreme Court laid down, “rape is not a matter for the parties to compromise and settle”. It is those occupying such high Constitutional posts like CJI Arvind Bobde who deliver a blow to women seeking justice from their tormentors because the message sent to police and other agencies is that it is useless to register FIRs of rape if the rapist promises to marry the survivor. This heinous axiom will deter rape victims from prosecuting their tormentors.

While being insensitive to the rape survivor, the Supreme Court has rightly shown sensitivity to Yatin Oza, only the second lawyer in judicial history to be stripped of his senior’s gown for his blunt criticism of the Gujarat high court registry. His words alleging that the registry had shown partiality towards certain law firms came after the former chairman of the Bar Council of Gujarat, Dipen Dave, had sent Oza a WhatsApp message on May 26, 2020, alleging what Oza had alleged. Oza’s father, like CJI Sharad Bobde, was a senior advocate. While the senior Arvind Bobde was the advocate general of Maharashtra, Oza’s father reportedly was the first to get the senior’s gown in Gujarat.

The point here is when CJIs are imperfect in handling gender-sensitive issues, it is time to scrap the collegium system of appointing judges, as Advocate Mathews Nedumpara had claimed. It is time the collegium records the names of those who oppose the elevation of Justice B V Nagarathna, with Justice Akil Kureshi, to the top court. She stands 46th in the All India seniority list of judges and is senior to Bombay high court chief justice Dipankar Datta, who will retire in 2030 after he is elevated to the apex court. As he surely will be.

Unlike the USA, where the senate grills putative Supreme Court judges on video-recorded testimony on everything from their private lives to their stance on issues like abortion and rape, the Supreme Court collegium in India decides in secrecy who will be appointed the future high court and Supreme Court judges. Until 2016, these deliberations were never recorded, with Justice Jasti Chelameswar alleging trade-offs between some of the collegium judges who wanted their own protégés to be elevated.

In his eloquent dissenting judgment on the NJAC, Justice Chelameswar flayed the collegium system in vogue for the past 26 years as “absolutely opaque and inaccessible both to public and history, barring occasional leaks. There was absolutely no accountability”.

All judges are products of the collegium system, with not much doubt that the government can exert subtle pressure on the CJI to drop an inconvenient name like Gopal Subramaniam from being elevated as a Supreme Court judge as was done in 2014. Only then did Subramaniam write to the then CJI R M Lodha that he had found the then Law Minister had initiated an inquiry against him “with a clear mandate to describe me as unsuitable to be a Supreme Court judge” because he would not toe the government line.

Whether outspoken lawyers like Oza and Subramaniam will concur that CJI Sharad Bobde upholds Constitutional morality over religious bigotry is a moot point. Bobde’s loyalty seems to be towards archaic beliefs. So, whether Nagarathna and Kureshi will be brought to the Supreme Court to ensure “a rapist remains a rapist” remains to be seen.

The writer holds a PhD in law and is a senior journalistcum-lawyer of the Bombay high court.