In a bizarre display of ignorance, court officials and lawyers wore medical masks during a rape case hearing where the victim, a young woman, was HIV positive.
During the camera proceedings, when the victim was present in the courtroom, the entire team of defence lawyers and the stenographer covered their faces “safely” in the court of additional sessions Judge G.C. Garg on Thursday.
Later posing for a group photograph at the Chandigarh district court premises, the lawyers said they had worn the masks as a “precaution” and “on the advice of a doctor.”
However insisting he and his colleagues had not meant to discriminate against the HIV positive woman, lead defence counsel Terminder Singh said, “The victim also has tuberculosis and since I was required to repeatedly approach her during cross-examination, I had been advised to wear a mask as a precaution against becoming infected.”
Mr Singh said medical records show the victim also has injuries and he had been cautioned against the possibility of her becoming agitated or spitting. “You see I had to be close to her and while handling the documents she had held,” he said adding, “even the victim told the judge that she had no objection to our masks.”
Incredulously, the two health workers who allegedly forced sexual intercourse on the young woman in exchange for anti retroviral medicines to her at Chandigarh’s prestigious PGIMER Hospital in 2009, had also used condoms because they were aware of her HIV status.
The unbelievable ignorance on display amidst educated and purportedly aware professionals has left Chandigarh aghast. Disturbingly, the incident also shows the collective failure of AIDS and HIV awareness programmes being run by national and state-level AIDS control bodies, as well as the huge voluntary sector .