'Consider Giving Job to Victim's Family': HC to UP Govt on Hathras Gang Rape

Allahabad High Court also directed the authorities to consider relocation of the victim's family outside Hathras.

Hathras victim’s mother at their house in Bul Garhi village.

(Photo: Asmita Nandy/The Quint)

The Allahabad High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to consider giving employment to a family member of Hathras gang rape victim within three months.

In its order passed on Tuesday, 26 July, the Lucknow bench of high court also directed the state authorities to consider relocation of the victim's family outside Hathras but within Uttar Pradesh, keeping in mind the family's social and economic rehabilitation and also the educational needs of the children of the family, within six months.

The bench of justices Rajan Roy and Jaspreet Singh said the state authorities should abide by their promise made to the victim's family in writing on 30 September 2020 wherein the family was assured an employment on a Group C post in the government.

The court passed the order on a PIL which was registered suo motu as “Right to Decent and Dignified Last Rites/Cremation'' in the intervening night of 29-30 September 2020.

The victim's family had demanded that they needed a job and rehabilitation outside Hathras. It was submitted that after the incident, brothers and father of the victim were rendered jobless and the family had meagre agricultural land for its subsistence.

It was also pleaded that due to the incident, it was difficult for the family to lead a normal life in Hathras.

In its order, the bench also directed the Hathras district magistrate to provide the travelling and maintenance expenses to the witnesses deposing in the trial.

The Case

The 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped by four upper-caste men in Hathras on 14 September 2020. She died on 29 September at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital during treatment.

The victim was cremated in the night near her home. Her family had alleged that they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. Local police officers, however, said the cremation was carried out "as per the wishes of the family".