A defence lawyer, accused of making derogatory remarks about women in a BBC documentary India’s Daughter about the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, told the Supreme Court on Monday that he respected women and denied making the comments in the film.
A Bench of Justices V. Gopala Gowda and C. Nagappan instead asked advocate Manohar Lal Sharma to file his response in writing in two weeks. The court was hearing a petition filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association (SCWLA) against Mr. Sharma and another lawyer, A.P. Singh, both defence lawyers in the Nirbhaya case.
The association sought a ban on their entry into the Supreme Court premises under the Gender Sensitisation and Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulations, 2013.
The women lawyers said the comments had caused a “sense of insecurity, indignation and fear among women lawyers practising in the SC.”
