‘PROVOCATIVE’ JUDGMENTS

The two victims are Dalit social activists, and the accused is a 74-year-old social reformer and cultural icon in Kerala who, ironically, often speaks for Dalit causes—and, to deepen the irony, had recently commented on the state’s sexual conservatism.

- Jeemon Jacob

 Kerala has been keenly following the scandal ever since the first victim, a 30-year-old publisher from Koyilandy in north Kerala, narrated her ordeal on social media. The septuagenarian ‘Civic’ Chandran had tried to force himself on her during an event at a beach in her hometown on February 8, 2020, she said. The second case was more recent: a 42-year-old Dalit schoolteacher-writer has accused Chandran of making sexual advances on her during a book exhibition on April 17.

What would have been a local issue made national headlines after Kozhikode district sessions judge S. Krishnakumar, while granting Chandran’s anticipatory bail plea in the first case on August 12, observed that Section 354A of the IPC (relating to sexual harassment) cannot be applied since the victim had been “wearing a sexually provocative dress” and also because she could not satisfactorily explain the two years’ delay in filing the complaint. The Kerala High Court has now intervened on an appeal by the state government, and cancelled the bail plea while granting Chandran relief from arrest, for now, considering his advanced age. The high court also took the sessions court to task, saying the order was “irregular” and “irrelevant material was considered” to grant bail.