Supreme Court order shifting the trial in the Kathua rape case outside the State is welcome
A free and fair trial is a sine qua non for an efficient and effective justice delivery mechanism which is enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution that “guarantees every person the fundamental right to life and liberty”. To ensure fairness to both the victim as well as the accused is a basic tenet of the rule of law. It is here that the wheels of justice seem to have taken a swift and efficient turn in the Kathua rape case. The Supreme Court’s decision to move the trial of the Kathua case from Jammu & Kashmir to Pathankot in Punjab is in conformity with the guiding principle of law that no one should be punished until proven guilty but to determine guilt or innocence a free and fair trial uninfluenced by fear or favour is non-negotiable. The Court has also directed the State to ensure safety for the victim's family members of which said they were in fear of their lives. The judicial process was clearly going to be unduly influenced if the trial had taken place in Kathua, so all right-thinking people must welcome the apex court's decision.
While the Supreme Court has risen to the occasion, the onus is now on civil society to put an end to the politicisation of and polarisation around the rape and murder of an eight-year-old child in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua district which has created a revulsion around the country. Similar mass anger was witnessed in the aftermath of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case with the difference that the Kathua case has become a battleground for politics and exposed the religious divide in our society. Communities seem to be at war with each other and protests led by local lawyers that impeded the filing of a charge-sheet in the case as well as those by opposing groups that attempted to paint the entire incident as a ‘Hindu conspiracy' grabbed headlines. All of India was disgusted, and rightly so, by this spectacle. At one end, were louts who claimed they wanted to drive away the Bakarwal nomadic community to which the victim belonged and claimed the accused were being framed by those working to effect a demographic change in the region and used the pretext of demanding a CBI inquiry to prevent the filing of a charge-sheet. But then it was members of the same community who mobilised in large numbers to demand justice for the victim.
The top court has done a stellar job in upholding public confidence in the justice delivery system by laying down procedural conditions to ensure the trial court processes are strong and uncompromising. To ensure fast-tracking of the case, it has called for a day-to-day hearing under its supervision and to ensure scrutiny of the process it has called for the installation of CCTV cameras inside the court premises. The apex court's ruling is a signal to the lower judiciary and police to treat such heinous rape cases, especially those involving minors, seriously, and pursuing prosecutions energetically. We are hopeful justice will be done.