Supreme Court chides UP government for challenging HC order on rehab of Hathras victim's kin

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ticked off Uttar Pradesh for challenging an order of the Allahabad HC directing the state to implement its promise to provide employment to a kin of victim of 2020 Hathras gang-rape case and rehabilitate her family at a place within the state other than Hathras.
UP government counsel Garima Prasad expressed difficulties of state in adhering to the promise as the kin eligible for offer of employment is the married brother of the victim and that the family wants to be settled in either Noida, Ghaziabad or Delhi. "Can the offer of employment to the kin extend to the married brother of the victim," she asked.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala chided the state government for filing the appeal. "How can the government appeal against such an order of the HC? It was a gruesome case of gang-rape in which the victim succumbed to her injuries. If that is the statutory relief promised by the state, how can it renege from it? In the facts and circumstances of the case, it does not warrant any interference," it said.
The incident had sparked nationwide uproar as the 19-year-old girl, who was gang-raped, ended up with broken bones and the perpetrators mutilated her tongue in an attempt to shut her up from giving evidence against them. She fought for life for two weeks before succumbing to her injuries on September 29, 2020 at Safdarjung hospital. The UP police stealthily cremated her at midnight injecting more controversy into the gruesome crime.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC had taken sun motu cognisance of the incident and had issued a series of directions in July last year, including a directive to the UP government to give employment to a kin of the victim within three months in the government or government undertaking as promised by the state in writing to the family on September 30, 2020.
The HC bench of Justices Ranjan Roy and Jaspreet Singh had directed the state authorities to consider the socio-economic rehabilitation of the victim's family and relocate them outside Hathras but within UP within six months. It also directed the state government to take the decision keeping in mind the educational needs of the children of the family.