PARVATIBAI BABAN SHINDE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IT is ironical that at a time when the rest of the world is fighting desperately for the equal status of the girl child, that incidents continue around us with barbaric regularity to eliminate the female of the human species. To what extent the bias against daughters and the single minded fixation in favour of the male offspring goads people on particularly within the sphere of marriage and remarriage in certain circles needs to be taken note of and the Courts while dealing with these cases will have to function with a degree of firmness. Social justice requires the Courts to play a sensitive, secular and civilizing role in suppressing grievous injustice to humanist values by inflicting condign punishment on dangerous deviants. Equally, while dealing with the oppressed sector and the victims, the Courts will have to reach out strongly to their assistance if justice is to be meaningfully done.

(2.) THIS appeal presents a set of facts that are extremely sad but also eloquently illustrative of the horrifying conditions to which women are exposed in rural India. Added to this, the present appeal presents a very distressing tale of the bias against female children and the terrible lengths to which the people can be pushed as a result thereof. The facts alone are illustrative of what we have just pointed out.

(3.) THE accused before us, Parvatibai Baban Shinde, aged about 36 years, is the second wife of one Baban Shinde, resident of Gota, Taluka Karad. Baban Shinde who was originally employed as a labourer at the vegetable market at Byculla in Bombay, returned to the village and promptly contracted a marriage with one Tarabai (P. W. 2 ). This Baban Shinde apparently was addicted to alcohol and was living virtualiy as a vagrant which explains why, even after returning to the village he virtually did no work in the small piece of land that they possessd and has preferred to spend his time on drinking and procreating which appeared to be his forte. As is evident from the record, not only was he not providing for the family, but he appears to have been in the habit of pawning whatever was found in the household and even selling articles such as utensils etc. to satisfy his lust for alcohol. This deplorable conduct did not stop Baban from contracting for marriage with Tarabai, who in course of time, gave birth to a female child. Baban promptly contracted a second marriage with accused Parvatibai and it appears that for several years kept on producing one child after another from both the wives, as a result of which the first wife Tarabai was left with two daughters, the second wife Parvatibai who is the accused-appellant before us gave birth to as many as six daughters. Even after this impressive performance, Baban appears to have not given up the desire for a male offspring and thereafter found a third woman who was working as a labourer at Karad by name Ladi.