A former Supreme Court judge invited the wrath of people after he made an extremely insensitive remark regarding the gang rape of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras, even as the nation has been protesting and demanding justice for the victim and stringent punishment for the perpetrators.

The former Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju, claimed in a statement following the Hathras rape that sex is a natural urge for men and that in a conservative society such as one in India, men can only have sex through marriage. And with rampant unemployment, men are unable to get married, as a result of which rape happens. The ridiculous statement is not just disrespectful towards women, but is almost as disrespectful towards men as well. "I condemn the Hathras gang rape, and call for harsh punishment of the culprits. However, having said that there is one aspect which also needs to be considered. Sex is a natural urge in men. It is sometimes said that after food, the next requirement is sex," the former SC judge wrote. "Today India alone has about 135 crore people, which means there has been a fourfold increase in population. But the number of jobs increased are far less than fourfold. In fact it is believed that in June 2020 alone 12 crore Indians lost their jobs. Therefore will there not be increase in rapes?" he added.

People have condemned Katju's remark and mentioned that a rapist is literally the only person responsible for rape and no external factors play any sort of role in the crime. "Sex is a natural urge in all genders, but RAPE is NOT a natural urge. If you believe that rape is a natural urge, that says a lot about YOU. Please study psychology, biology, and/or sociology before saying such blatantly foolish things to people," one of the users wrote. Despite the severe criticism, the judge refused to back down or apologize for his statement. "I was accused of being a misogynist, sexist, provocative, rape supporter, a man with a sick mentality, and what not. But what wrong did I do ? I only said that rapes will not go down unless unemployment goes down. No doubt unemployment is not the only cause of rape, but it is the most important cause," he further attempted to justify.

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— Markandey Katju (@mkatju) September 30, 2020