Open letter to PM opposing proposed Molestation Law

Proposed Molestation Law

The government will soon make molestation a nonbailable offence, increasing the maximum imprisonment for the crime from two to five years.

To,

Dr. Manmohan Singh,

Prime Minister of India,

Prime Minister’s Office,

South Block,  Raisina Hill,

New Delhi – 110011

Dear Sir,

I, , am writing this letter to strongly object to the newly proposed Molestation Law, making it a non-bailable offence with imprisonment upto 5 years. Though the law is now being proposed from a fall-out of hyped case of Ruchika Girhotra, I would like, Sir, to bring to your attention that “alleged molestation” is not the main issue here. The main issues are the power plays by bureaucrats, denial of justice from the judiciary and violations of fundamental and human rights of innocents by police machinery while concurrently shielding of the guilty.

1) Power plays and terror from the former DGP S.P.S. Rathore and his clout victimized whole of Ruchika’s family and made their lives hell. Cruel and heinous acts like getting Ruchika expelled from school and torturing her innocent brother Ashu, committed to make the family buckle from their resolve of getting justice. Clearly the suicide committed by the girl was not because of “alleged molestation” but an unfortunate result of DGP’s power play.

2) Judicial system in India is stooping to sinister levels with each passing day. Delayed justice in most cases and corrupt judiciary all over the country are breaking lower grounds with each passing day to the extent that common man has lost all faith in the justice delivery. Your attention is drawn to cases like the PF scam in UP, Justice Dinakaran’s affairs in Karnataka, Justice Nirmal Yadav’s cash at doorstep case (Annexure 1, 2, 3) .

Ex-DGP Rathore not only received a light sentence but also 19 free years as a gift from the judiciary. With such an state of affairs many aggrieved prefer to suffer on their own instead of suffering at the hands of judiciary.

3) Police department is directly responsible in shielding Rathore. As such, shielding criminals with high profile or connections thereof is a routine affair at Police department. While the innocents are regularly abused physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. There are many such cases; here I would like to draw your attention to the rape case in Betul, M.P., where a dalit women was raped in police custody, six months back (Annexure 4)

4) Fund chasing radical feminists with their vested interest spare no time in hijacking the real issue of corrupt police officers, bureaucrats and judiciary by raising hue & cry to create more harsh and unconstitutional gender-biased anti-male laws like this molestation law. It should be noted here, these feminist organizations do no good for women and children really suffering e.g. the Betul rape case mentioned above. Instead, they are more interested in hogging media limelight by attending to cases like false molestation charges leveled by an Air India air-hostess against the pilots.

5) Anticipatory Bail was provided to Ex-DGP Rathore instantly even after his involvement in abetting suicide was in public knowledge. Whereas, police in cahoots with judiciary routinely play the game of arrest and denying bail to husbands for IPC 498A cases without even investigating the matter. Infact, in IPC 498A cases, this bail itself is used as a legal tool of blackmailing and extortion. CJI himself admitted to “gross misuse” of IPC 498a (Annexure 5)

I’m appalled to find that instead of fixing the rot in the system, Govt. is planning to bring in one more biased law which denies equality and freedom provided by the Constitution of India to its citizens. My strong objection be registered against such a Molestation Law.

As such, the Govts with Congress as ruling party in the past have particularly been instrumental in passing gender-biased family-breaking laws like Section 498A of Indian Penal Code and The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, misuse of which are rampant throughout India. There is no punishment mentioned in these laws for misuse, and hence, are misused blatantly by women to settle scores resulting in –

• physical, mental, emotional and financial abuse of husband and his entire family members at the hands of police and judiciary
• defamation of husband and family
• huge number of false cases crippling the justice delivery system thus, affecting and delaying justice for all.

On the other hand, the long pending amendments, “Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendments), 2008” were not brought into force even after assented to by Her Excellency, The President of India, just because some lawyers held the whole country to ransom by striking work at courts throughout India.

If the Govt. is really interested in fixing the rot, it should:

A) Comply with the directions laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in W.P. 310 / 1996, Prakash Singh and Others vs. Union of India and Others under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution for implementing police reforms. This will ensure that police personnel do not misuse their powers in uniform.

B) Strengthen the Right To Information Act, 2005 (RTI), and get it implemented across the board. Bureaucrats and officials who flout the RTI Act blatantly should be brought to books (may even be jailed), to make them fall in line and work for public welfare.

C) Bring the entire judicial proceedings and administration under the ambit of the RTI Act, so that they can be held accountable for playing with people’s lives and delivering “No-Justice” after lifetime of cases running.

D) Amend Article 311 of the Indian Constitution to nail the corrupt officials as pointed out by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Law and Justice Dr. M Veerappa Moily as reported in the Indian Express on the 14th of September 2009 (Annexure 6)

The questions a law abiding citizen like me is raising, for how long will it be that:

1) A common man cannot get justice without harassment or get only “No-Justice” after decades of fighting?

2) Justice will be got only when media creates hype?

3) People’s voice be heard only when they hold the country to ransom, like the lawyers against CrPC amendments, or the Gurjars for reservation, or the farmers for opposing sugar pricing or the Telengana protests?

 The Chief Justice of India has recently said that Indian people will revolt if the government continues to play with people’s lives (Annexure 7) and the Ruchika case may just be the beginning of the revolt. I have today totally lost all faith in the Indian Judiciary and the Justice system, and will be willfully taking part in any agitation against the new proposed law on molestation unless the Govt. gives an official statement that it will not be considering it.

Thanks and regards,

Signature

Annexure:

1) PF scam in UP and judges not cooperating

2) Justice Dinakaran disproportionate assets

3) Justice Nirmal Yadav cash at doorstep case

4) Dalit woman’s rape in police custody in Betul, MP

5) CJI on gross misuse of IPC 498a

6) Need to revisit laws : Law Minister Dr. M Veerappa Moily

7) CJI on people’s revolt on delayed justice

CC:

1) Smt.Prathibha DeviSingh Patil, President of India,  Rashtrapathi Bhavan, New Delhi – 110004.

2) Dr. M Veerappa Moily,  Hon’ble Union Minister of Law and Justice,  Ministry of Law and Justice,  Govt. of India,  4th Fl. A Wing, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi – 110 001

3) Shri K.C. Jain, Joint Secretary (Coordination and Public Grievances),  Room No. 9, North Block,
New Delhi-110001

4) Home Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, North Block, Central Secretariat, New Delhi – 110 001

5) Mr.K.M.Chandrasekar (IAS), Cabinet Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat , Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi – 1100 04

6) Dr. Brahm A. Agrawal , Member Secretary, LAW COMMISSION OF INDIA, 2nd Floor, The Indian Law Institute Building, (Opp. to Supreme Court), Bhagwandas Road, New Delhi – 110 001