SC stays Punjab HC order on bail for rape accused

Over six weeks after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to three alleged rapists and blackmailers after observing that it would be a “travesty if these young minds are confined to jail for an inordinate long period, which would deprive them of their education” and also patronising and shaming the victim, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the order of the High Court. The top court also issued a notice on the rape survivor’s petition challenging the order.

The HC order, passed by the bench of Justices Mahesh Grover and Raj Shekhar Attri, had attracted a fair amount of criticism for the reasoning given by the court while granting relief to the three accused, who were students of the Jindal Global Law School, the same University where the victim studied. The trio had blackmailed and gangraped the victim for about two years.

In its order, the HC had said the bail was intended to “balance concerns of the victim, demands of society and law and the element of reformatory and rehabilitative justice”. It had suspended their sentence on the condition they would not leave the country, abstain from contacting the victim and also undergo psychiatric counselling “until they are free of voyeuristic tendencies”.