Supreme Court: Remarks ‘completely misreported’

CJI S A Bobde. File pic

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde on Monday said its observations during the hearing of a rape case last week were "completely misreported" and added that it has the "highest respect for women".

The comments - on International Women's Day - come in the wake of recent criticism against the SC that it had asked an accused whether he would marry the victim, who was a minor when he allegedly raped her multiple times. "We (had) asked are you going to marry? We didn't order (him to) ‘marry'," the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, said.

The observations by the bench were made while it was hearing another case - that of a 14-year-old pregnant rape survivor seeking permission to abort the foetus of almost 26 weeks. In the proceedings, it referred to a provision of the Evidence Act and said the query was posed in the context of the records, but the issue was "completely misreported".

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