To Wed Your Rapist, or Not: Indian Women on Trial

NEW DELHI—Just weeks after a gang-rape that shocked India, the National Human Rights Commission convened a meeting to discuss what to do about violence against women.

At the January gathering, G.P. Mathur, a retired Supreme Court justice, startled the crowd: He said it can be appropriate for women to marry their alleged rapists, provided the marriage isn't coerced. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal in which he elaborated on his views, Mr. Mathur described such marriages as "compromises" that victims and their families seek in order to avoid the stigma of a public trial.

"Courts repeatedly talk about getting married as the most important thing for a woman," said Mrinal Satish, a National Law University professor whose research shows that courts have given shorter sentences to rapists of women judged not to be virgins, compared with rapists of virgins.

The rape of an unmarried virgin was viewed by the courts as "a loss of value because of which she's not being able to get married," Mr. Satish said. "It's not legal reasoning." He examined some 800 High Court and Supreme Court rape-case appeals decided between 1984 and 2009.

Even though it is unusual for judges to criticize their peers, some are speaking out. A Supreme Court ruling in January expressed "anguish" over remarks by a lower-court judge suggesting that "wife-beating is a normal facet of married life."

In the Journal interview, Mr. Mathur, the former Supreme Court justice, explained his view on marriage "compromise"—where a woman weds her alleged attacker—saying it can be an acceptable outcome if both people believe they can live happily together. He said victims' families are often motivated to pursue such arrangements because the stigma of rape might otherwise make it difficult for the woman to marry. He reiterated that "it should be voluntary, a free consent."

In one instance, a prominent spiritual figure, Asaram Bapu, told his disciples that the victim could have avoided trouble if she had "chanted a prayer, taken one of her attackers by the hand, and called him 'brother,'" according to a recording of the lecture. He also said, "If stronger laws are made, women will ensnare men with false cases."