Mahendra Vs State Of Calcutta: A Socio-Legal Analysis Of Bulbbul (2020)
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Shriya Tandon, O.P. Jindal Global University
ABSTRACT:
Re-watching Bulbbul as a law student, I couldn’t help but wonder how Bubbul’s story would unfold if we substituted the fantasy-horror theme with a realistic Courtroom plot. Curiosity got the best of me, and I did just that— giving Bulbbul a chance to seek legal recourse. For a better understanding and decoding of the outcome that might ensue from this hypothetical legal battle, I employed a more modern timeline to utilize the contemporary Indian Criminal Law, i.e., Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. However, I cannot simply ignore the existence of several uncoded standards and criteria that Courts consider while deciding upon rape cases. It is a silent but known fact that the Indian Criminal Justice System more often than not gravitates towards social constructs of ‘what rape is’ instead of abiding by the legislative lingo. The dominant explanation of this unnatural phenomenon is embedded in the unrealistic patriarchal standards that are imposed on women, which treat them as accessories to men, and decide whether they are deserving of ‘justice’ based on their caste, class, creed, purity, and so on. Through this paper I aim to analyze these shortcomings—particularly the persistence of rape myths, and the relevance of mens rea in rape case—by employing them in Bulbbul’s case, to accentuate on how justice can be influenced by extra- legal factors.
