The Kerala High Court, on Thursday, October 13, expunged the remarks made about the dress of the survivor by the Kozhikode sessions judge while granting anticipatory bail to activist Civic Chandran in a sexual harassment case. Civic Chandran was accused in two sexual harassment cases, and when granting bail to him, judge S Krishnakumar of the sessions court made two controversial observations — that the accused was a reformist and against the caste system and it is “highly unbelievable that he would touch the body of the victim fully knowing that she belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC)”; and that the photograph of the other survivor, produced by the accused along with the bail application, would explain that she herself “dressed in a sexually provocative manner” and it is “impossible to believe that a man aged 74 and physically disabled would ever commit the offence”.
The survivor and the state government filed two pleas against the anticipatory bail granted by the sessions court in favour of Civic Chandran. Justice Kauser Edappagath, while disposing these pleas on Thursday, said that even though the reason shown by the sessions court for granting anticipatory bail cannot be justified, the order granting anticipatory bail cannot be set aside either.
Further, the judge also observed that the dress of a survivor “does not give licence to a man” to outrage her modesty. “The dressing of a victim cannot be construed as a legal ground to absolve an accused from the charge of outraging the modesty of a woman. The right to wear any dress is a natural extension of personal freedom guaranteed by the Constitution and a facet of the fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. Even if a woman wears a provocative dress that cannot give a licence to a man to outrage her modesty. Hence, the said finding of the Court below in the impugned order is hereby set aside," the court had said, Livelaw reported.