The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a landmark decision that the testimony of a prosecutor with a disability or a special witness cannot be deemed weak or weaker simply because they engage with the environment differently than their able-bodied peers (Patan Jamal Vali v. State of Andhra Pradesh).
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah have released a slew of recommendations to better combat disability inequality and make the legal system more accessible to disabled people:
The Bench was hearing an appeal from a man guilty of raping a blind child from a Scheduled Caste group in 2011. After being convicted under Section 376 IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, the accused was sentenced to life in jail.
The appellant had been sentenced by the Sessions Court, and the verdict had been affirmed by the High Court in 2019.
The case served as a springboard for the Supreme Court to investigate a troubling pattern of sexual harassment against women and girls with disabilities.
To make India's criminal justice system more open to disabled persons, a two-judge bench recommended the following changes:
The National Judicial Academy and state judicial academies should educate trial and appellate judges about how to handle litigation involving sexual assault survivors.
This preparation should familiarise judges with the special provisions that apply to survivors like those described above. It should also provide clarification on the legal weight to be given to such witnesses/survivors' testimonies, in line with our position.
In this respect, public prosecutors and standing attorneys should receive equal instruction. The Bar Council of India can recommend including these subjects, as well as the intersectional essence of violence in general, in the LL.B curriculum.
(ii) Trained special educators and interpreters must be named to ensure that the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013's fair accommodations are effectively implemented.
To promote easier access and communication, all police departments can maintain a directory of such trainers, interpreters, and legal aid providers.
(iii) The National Crimes Record Bureau should carefully consider keeping gender-based harassment evidence that is not aggregated. The disability must be one of the factors on which such data must be maintained in order to figure out the scope of the issue and take targeted remedial steps.
(iv) Police officers should be sensitized on a daily basis in order to cope appropriately with incidents of sexual harassment against women with disabilities. In consideration of the affected person's organization, this experience should stress the importance of communicating individually with them, rather than their caretaker or helper.
(v) In order to educate women and girls with disabilities on their rights when they are subjected to some kind of sexual assault, awareness-raising programs must be undertaken in accessible formats.
The victim's blindness in this situation meant that she had no visual interaction with the outside world.
"As a result, the sound of someone's voice is her main means of recognizing them. As a result, her evidence had the same weight as that of a prosecutrix who could physically identify the appellant "The Court made its decision.
As a result, the court affirmed his conviction and sentencing under Section 376 IPC but convicted him of violating the SC/ST Act because the prosecutor failed to provide proof that the prosecutrix's caste was one of the grounds for the crime.