‘Rape victims cannot be treated differently’

‘Rape victims cannot be treated differently’

High Court strikes down CM’s discretion in matters of relief Chief Minister’s Relief Fund Rules empower the CM to award monetary relief to unlimited extent Petitioner says he tried to raise the issue in Assembly but Raje did not pay heed to it


JAIPUR: In a landmark judgment, the Rajasthan High Court has ruled against discrimination in the award of monetary relief to minor girls subjected to rape while striking down the Chief Minister’s discretion in such matters under the Relief Fund.
A Division Bench of the Court handed down the ruling while allowing a public interest writ petition moved by Congress MLA Sanyam Lodha seeking disbursement of equal monetary assistance to all rape victims irrespective of their age.
The Chief Minister’s Relief Fund Rules, 1999, empower the CM to award monetary relief to an unlimited extent on his or her own accord to rape victims and flood and drought victims and for development of hospitals, medical exigencies, children’s welfare and overall development of the State.
The Bench, comprising Justice Shiv Kumar Sharma and Justice M.C. Sharma, judicially substituted the phrase “unlimited extent” in Rule 5 of the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund Rules with “equally and without discrimination”, thereby curtailing the Chief Minister’s powers to award any amount of relief arbitrarily to any victim covered by the Fund.CM’s power
Mr. Lodha, citing the case of an adult rape victim who was given an exorbitant relief of Rs.5 lakh, contended that the minor rape victims should be treated on an equal footing and paid the same amount of assistance. He said the Chief Minister’s power to determine low monetary relief to minor girls in comparison with the adult rape victims was unjustifiable.
The petitioner said he had tried to raise the issue on the floor of the Assembly but Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje did not pay heed to it. Ms. Raje never tried to reconsider the wide discretion given to her in such matters under the Relief Fund Rules, he added.
The High Court, while observing that it could not “shut its eyes towards the discriminatory treatment meted out to minor girls subjected to rape”, expressed surprise over the MLA approaching the Court to invoke its extraordinary writ jurisdiction when the debate on “Lakshman Rekha” (boundaries) among the judiciary, the legislature and the executive was going on.Equal treatment
“In our opinion, all the victims of rape are alike and are required to be treated equally. They cannot be treated differently even on the basis of different circumstances of the case,” said the Bench, adding that all rape victims should be the same for the Chief Minister, regardless of their age.
“When no distinction is made in the Indian Penal Code between the victims of rape, why are they being discriminated against in the grant of relief?” asked the Court while directing an alteration in the impugned phrase in the Relief Fund Rules.