A day after the Chief Justice of India asked a government servant if he would marry the girl he allegedly raped multiple times, more than 4,000 citizens wrote an open letter to him, demanding his apology and retraction of the remark.

In the letter written on Tuesday, members of over 50 women’s rights and progressive groups/networks, feminists, students, senior citizens, advocates and filmmakers stated that they are “deeply distressed by the regressive statements of the CJI asking a rapist to marry the victim and condoning marital rape in court.”