AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has come to the rescue of a rape survivor, whose application seeking compensation under Manodhairya scheme had been turned down.The Beed district women and child development officer had rejected the survivor's application stating that the rape took place before the government announced the scheme offering compensation to the survivors of sexual assault. The HC has directed the authority concerned to compensate the survivor with Rs 2 lakh under the scheme.A 25-year-old woman was gang-raped on September 6, 2012 by two men who barged into her house in Ambajogai tehsil of Beed. During the course of trial, the accused were convicted on the charges of gang-rape.The government resolution announcing the scheme was issued on October 21, 2013. The scheme 'Manodhairya Yojana' ensures compensation of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh in normal cases to the survivors of sexual assault and maximum of Rs 3 lakh in severe attacks. About 75% of the amount is invested as a fixed deposit and the remaining 25% amount is directly transferred to the survivor's bank account.The division bench of the HC comprising Justice S S Shinde and Justice R G Avachat observed that though the date of incident is prior to the resolution, the trial had taken place after its introduction and the accused had been convicted under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code in the year 2017.Lawyer P P Khandagale, while representing the rape survivor, cited the earlier HC judgements giving relief to the survivors in similar cases. The woman moved the HC after her application seeking compensation was turned down by Beed authorities.'When the state government has brought the aforesaid government resolution with laudable object to provide compensation to the survivor of rape, on technical ground that the alleged offence took place prior to issuance of the GR, would be defeating the very object of bringing into force the said GR,' ruled the division bench of the HC.Taking a view on humanitarian grounds, the HC stated that it was true that the old cases should not be reopened. However, if the trials are concluded after the aforesaid GR came into force and the allegations in the first information report have been proved and conviction is given to the accused, then in our considered opinion, merely technically the incident had taken place just one year before the introduction of the said Government Resolution, cannot be a ground to deny the compensation to the petitioner, the court noted.She had approached the court stating that her husband is a labourer and they have one child dependent upon them. Due to the loss of reputation in the society, they were not able to collect adequate means for their survival, the court noted.

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