If judiciary is one of the pillars of democracy, lawmakers are the bricks in it. So, to expect them to be fair and rational is to expect the least.

However, that duty isn’t fulfilled in many cases. Here we take a look at some of the most offensive statements made by the judges of Indian courts in past few years.

1. Granting anticipatory bail to a rape accuse, Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka, said that falling asleep after being raped is ‘unbecoming of an Indian woman’:

…the explanation offered by the complainant that after the perpetration of the act she was tired and fell asleep, is unbecoming of an Indian woman. This is not the way our women react when they are ravished.

2. While addressing a petition Justice SR Sen said that India should have become a Hindu country after partition. Here is another part of his statement.

I make it clear that nobody should try to make India as another Islamic country, otherwise it will be a doomsday for India and the world.

While adding: 

I am not against my Muslim brothers and sisters who are residing in India for generations and abiding Indian laws, they should also be allowed to live peacefully.

3. Justice S. Vaidyanathan made a statement on Christian schools, and announced that there was a feeling of fear in parents that the Co-ed institutions were unsafe for girls.

…general feeling among the parents of female students that co-educational studies in Christian institutions is highly unsafe for the future of their children.

He also said:

(There were) several accusations against Christians for indulging in compulsory conversion of people of other religions into Christianity.

4. In a matter regarding matrimonial dispute, Karnataka High Court Judge K Bhakthavatsala told a woman lawyer that she should take up such cases only after she gets married.

Family matters should be argued only by married people, not spinsters. You should only watch. Bachelors and spinsters watching family court proceedings will start thinking if there is any need to marry at all. Marriage is not like a public transport system. You better get married and you will get very good experience to argue such cases.

Making things worse, he told a survivor of physical abuse that ‘women suffer in all marriages’.

You are married with two children, and know what it means to suffer as a woman. Yesterday, there was a techie couple who reconciled for the sake of their child. Your husband is doing good business, he will take care of you. Why are you still talking about his beatings?
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5. Hearing a student’s petition against an MP convent school’s directive that Muslims can’t sport a beard, Justice Markandey Katju had reportedly said that it will lead to ‘Talibanisation’ of the country.

We don’t want to have talibans in the country. Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa, can we allow it.

He later apologised for the same.

Jansatta

These are a few of the many offensive statements made by the judges of our country. There are some more which don’t find their foundation in science. For instance: Justice Mahesh Chandra Sharma once said that a peacock doesn’t have sex and impregnates peahen with its tears.

He was also a part of the panel that termed women in live-in relationships as ‘concubines’.

Falling short of words.