Women call for chief justice to quit over comment to rapist

NEW DELHI » Outrage in India is growing over comments made by the nation’s chief justice in two rape cases, with thousands of women signing a letter this week demanding that he resign.

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, the head of India’s Supreme Court, asked a 23-year-old man accused of raping a minor whether he would marry his victim, who is now an adult.

The victim, who under Indian law cannot be identified, has accused the man, a distant relative and a civil servant with the Maharashtra state government, of repeatedly stalking and raping her starting when she was 16.

The judge’s comments provoked new demands that people in power, and particularly men, do more to improve how women and girls are treated in India. A spate of shocking assaults in recent years has galvanized women’s groups and other activists to change long-held attitudes toward sexual violence.