HC notice to Tarun Tejpal on Goa govt's appeal against acquittal in rape case

The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday observed that the sessions courts judgement acquitting journalist Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 rape case was like a manual for rape victims as it goes into how a victim should respond in such casesJustice S C Gupte issued a notice to Tejpal and posted for June 24 the appeal filed by the Goa government against the sessions courts order acquitting him in the caseThe HC also directed the registry department to call for all papers and other documents related to the case from the sessions courtThe judgement goes into how she victim responded There are some observations on this It is like a manual for rape victims Justice Gupte saidThe HC said the judgement also does not include the prosecutions caseIt judgement directly goes into the gist of the case and then the victims evidence and statements of witnesses Justice Gupte saidThere is a prima facie case to consider the leave permission to appeal against the acquittal Issue notice to the respondent Tejpal returnable on June 24 the high court saidAlso ReadTejpal case HC asks sessions court to redact references to victims identityThe HC bench made the remarks when Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta appearing for the Goa government read out portions from the sessions courts 527page judgement which while referring to the victims behaviour both during the alleged incident and afterwards said the narrative was of extreme implausibilityThe judgement says the victim who is an intelligent woman and physically strong as she is a yoga instructor could have prevented the sexual assault on her Mehta saidOn May 21 sessions Judge Kshama Joshi acquitted Tejpal former editorinchief of the Tehelka magazine in the case where he was accused of sexually assaulting his then colleague in a lift of a fivestar hotel in Goa in November 2013 when they were attending an eventThe trial court had in its judgement questioned the womans conduct saying she did not exhibit any kind of normative behaviour such as trauma and shock which a victim of sexual assault might plausibly showMehta on Wednesday pointed out to HC the observations made by the sessions court on how the victim met with eminent women lawyers like Indira Jaising and Rebecca JohnWhat is wrong if the victim decided to get legal advice from women lawyers before approaching the court or police Mehta saidThe court then noted that the judgement while referring to Jaising says the victim had saved her mobile number in her phone under the name BrahmastraMehta said all this was irrelevant and hence should be redactedThis will have a panIndia effect as everyone will read the judgement In future a victim of sexual assault may hesitate in taking legal advice There is a portion in the judgement that these lawyers are feminists he said adding that even he is a feministThe HC said it would go into all these issues on the next date of hearingThe judgement is already uploaded and is in the public realm As per our earlier order all references to the victims identity have been redacted from the judgement Justice Gupte saidMehta further argued that the sessions courts judgement exhibits complete lack of sensitivity towards crimes against women and absolute lack of knowledge on this subjectWe dont know if the victim was on trial or the accused The entire judgement is as if the victim is on trial Why should there be so much discussion on the victims sexual history he saidThe sessions courts judge has been a mute spectator when the accuseds lawyers brazenly went on to shame the victim Mehta arguedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever