‘Are you saying protect all women or don't protect anyone?’: CJI DY Chandrachud

The Supreme Court continued to hear the Manipur rape case. When the proceedings began, advocate Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late External Minister of India, Dr Sushma Swaraj, brought to the notice of bench headed by CJI Chandrachud that rape cases were women were paraded naked were also registered in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. She requested that those cases should be addressed by the apex court along with the Manipur case. 

To this, the CJI confessed that such rapes do happen in other states, but an equivalence would serve no purpose. 

Swaraj: All pan India daughters have to protected. There have been instances in Bikaner, in West Bengal... it's not just Manipur.

CJI DY Chandrachud: Are you saying protect all women or don't protect anyone?#SupremeCourt#Manipur#SupremeCourtofIndia

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) July 31, 2023

“We are dealing with something of unprecedented magnitude of violence against women in communal and sectarian violence. But this cannot be said that crimes are happening against women and in Bengal also because here the case is different. Tell me what is the suggestion from you in the Manipur case? We cannot justify what happened in Manipur by saying that this happened elsewhere,” the Chief Justice said as quoted by the Indian Express.

The Supreme court on its end would form a panel of judges composed of women to deal with violence in Manipur considering that the victims of such violence would have an apprehension in approaching the authorities and it is the responsibility of the authorities concerned to ensure that they take the efforts to reach out to the victims who are in distress.