Judge asks Indian rapist and his victim to reconcile

Decision includes mediation, fuels wave of criticism

NEW DELHI — A judge in India recently released a rapist from jail so he could attend mediation sessions with his victim in the apparent hope the two could put their differences aside and possibly marry.

The ruling prompted an outcry, and the judge was criticized not only for his retrograde reasoning but also for misusing India’s court-ordered mediation system, which is normally used for conflict resolution in civil cases, not those involving violent crimes.

In a country where reports of rapes are on the rise and violence against women remains a public flash point, politicians and police are routinely in the news for insensitive remarks about sexual violence, including blaming rapes on women — for wearing provocative clothing, flirting on their cellphones and staying out too late at night.

“They are boys,” one state politician said. “Mistakes happen.”

But judges have made their share of controversial statements as well, as evidenced by these examples:

• A judge in Delhi, Virender Bhat, said in 2013 that there was a “very disturbing trend” of young women consenting to sex with their lovers and then claiming rape.

• Bhat also said women who engage in premarital sex are “immoral.”

• A retired judge in the state of Kerala said child prostitution “is not rape.” He sparked controversy in 2013 when he told a journalist he had dismissed the case of 35 men who gangraped a child sex worker in the 1990s using that logic.

• A 14-year-old girl’s rapist was acquitted because she did not fight “like a wild animal” during the sexual assault. The Supreme Court dismissed a second appeal of the case in 2013, expressing “anguish” that the prosecution and the Madhya Pradesh trial court had not been more careful and shown more sensitivity.