Female Magistrates to Record Rape Victim’s Statements

“It has been recorded that women and child victims hesitate to narrate incidents of rape or sexual assault in front of male magistrates,” said a circular issued by the Supreme Court administration on April 16. Under this light, from now on only female magistrates will record statements of women and child victims of sexual harassment. The circular was issued by Supreme Court’s Registrar General Md Zakir Hossain as per the instruction from Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain. The circular said female magistrates will record the statements of those victims for the sake of fair investigation and justice in the cases filed over rape and sexual harassment.

“Victim’s account is an important piece of evidence in a case of rape or sexual harassment,” Advocate Fahmida Akhter Rinky said, adding that more female magistrates should be recruited to ensure the comfort of the victims in describing how they got raped or assaulted.

The circular also read if a female magistrate is not available in a district or metropolitan area for doing this job, any other “competent” magistrate can be given the responsibility. As per the circular, if the chief judicial magistrates and chief metropolitan magistrates face any problems in complying with the directives, they have been requested to bring this to the SC’s notice.

He said the circular has been issued as per recommendation from the Supreme Court Special Committee for Judicial Reforms, which was formed in 2010 under the leadership of Justice Muhammad Imman Ali, a senior judge of the Appellate Division.

Other members of the committee are Justice Zinat Ara, Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, Justice Obaidul Hassan, Justice Md Rezaul Hasan and Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique.

Source: The Daily Star