Mumbai, Nov 19 (Dna): A senior citizen on Wednesday argued before the Bombay High Court that cases of rape have increased due to women wearing revealing clothes. The argument was allowed by the court as it considered it to be the view of the common man.

A division bench of justices Naresh Patil and S B Shukre was hearing a bunch of petitions on the issue of women safety in the city. During this one of the petitioners Chandrakanth Palav — who appeared in person — told the court that rape cases have increased because of the kind of clothes women wear.

Lawyers present in the court room and those appearing in the remaining matters raised strong opposition to the argument. Advocates Rajeev Chavan, Maharooq Adenwala, Madhav Jamdar and the government pleaders P P Kakade and Geeta Shashtri took objection to Palav's argument.

"How does a woman's attire affect crime against women. We take objection to such a line of argument. This is putting the entire blame on the victim (women)," Chavan and Adenwala said.

To this, Justice Naresh Patil said: "Let him speak. We want to hear the common man's view."

Chavan, however, said if as per Palav's case rapes occur due to the revealing clothes then what about rapes on minor children. "Three and four-year-old girls are being raped. What revealing clothes did they wear?" he asked.

Government pleaders Kakade and Shashtri also told the court that the Dharmadhikari committee set up to look into the issue of women safety called for a change in the mentality of men in order to curb rapes and other crimes against women. The court then asked Palav to stop his argument and posted all the petitions for further hearing next week.