To say that the judgment acquitting the former Tehelka editor was based on the age-old trope of a ravished woman with a misplaced moral compass and peppered with graphic references to the complainant’s supposed sexual past is a gross understatement.
“It is very unfortunate that a woman judge has delivered such a judgment. In this case, the judge has put the survivor on trial instead of trying the accused,” Vijaya Rahatkar, former chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women said.
By describing the complainant a young woman who chooses her sexual partners, drinks on occasion, and has male friends justice Kshama Joshi seems to imply that women with certain personality types can't be rape survivors.