New Delhi: The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Friday night issued show cause notices to two lawyers who had appeared for the accused in the December 16 gangrape case for allegedly making derogatory anti-women remarks.
“We have issued the show cause notices to M L Sharma and A P Singh for their alleged remarks made in the (BBC) documentary,” BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said.
The lawyers’ apex body took the decision around midnight after its executive committee meeting in which it was found that there is a “prima facie” case of professional misconduct against these lawyers.
The notices have been issued under a provision of the advocates act and their licences to practice may be cancelled if BCI is not satisfied with their response.
Meanwhile, advocate Sharma refuted the charge, saying he has said nothing wrong to anybody.
In the controversial BBC documentary on the gang rape, Sharma reportedly said such incidents of rape are bound to happen if girls go out without proper security.
Sharma said, “In our society, we never allow our girls to go out of the house after 6.30 or 7.30 or 8.30 in the evening with any unknown person.”
“You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn’t have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman,” he said.
Mukesh Singh, who was convicted of being one of the gang that raped a girl of December 16 said, “Now when they rape, they won’t leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl.”
Singh and three others are on appeal and their death sentences are on hold. Another man charged with rape and murder, Mukesh’s brother Ram Singh, was found dead in prison in 2013.
Lawyer A.P. Singh said that he stood by what he said in an earlier interview, “If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight.”
The victim’s mother says, “Whenever there is a crime, the girl is blamed. It’s the boys who should be accused and asked why they do this.”
On why she made the documentary, Leslee Udwin said, “Courageous ordinary men and women of India braved the December freeze to protest. In this regard, India led the world by example. I can’t recall any other country standing up with such determination for women’s rights.”
