Indian court says mediation orders in rape cases are illegal

NEW DELHI: Attempts by Indian lower courts to promote mediation and settlements between rapists and their victims are against the dignity of women and are illegal, the Supreme Court said Wednesday.
"It is a spectacular error on the part of the court to promote any such mediation," judge Dipak Misra of the Supreme Court was quoted as saying by NDTV news channel.
The Supreme Court's declaration comes days after the Madras High Court referred the case of a man convicted of rape to a mediation centre, saying it should try to reach a settlement that takes into consideration the rape victim's future.
Judge D. Devadass of the Madras High Court had granted bail to the convict, who had not completed his seven-year-sentence, for mediation sessions.
Devadass also referred to another case in which he made a similar intervention, saying a "happy conclusion" was reached with the rape victim agreeing to marry the rapist, NDTV reported.
The rape victim, who was 14 years old when she was assaulted in 2008, has since said in interviews that she did not want a settlement with her attacker nor did she want to marry him.
"Isn't this order, without seeking my opinion, now asking me to place my self-respect at the mercy of the man who raped me? How can I have a life with him?" she said in an interview with the Indian Express newspaper.
The woman, now 21, is a single parent and makes a living from short-term jobs.
She works as a porter when no other options available, the Indian Express reported.
She said that when her 6-year-old daughter, who was conceived in the rape, grew up she would learn of her mother's struggle. "I will tell her that her father was a rapist."
"Any approach of compromise or settlement is against the dignity of women," the Supreme Court said Wednesday.
The judge also said that an order suggesting such compromise was "completely illegal" and not binding on the rape victim.
The Supreme Court's comments came during the hearing of an appeal on a rape case in Madhya Pradesh state.
According to government data, there were 33,707 cases of rape reported in India in 2013. Rights activists say many more go unreported. – dpa