The National Commission for Women moved the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking guidelines for trial courts on dealing with rape cases. This step, the commission has said, is aimed at preventing instances of a victim marrying the perpetrator.

“The commission is apprehensive that a wrong precedent will be set if the accused in a rape case is allowed to marry the victim while the case is still pending,” a letter sent by commission members to the chief justice of the High Court states.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna have now converted the letter into a PIL and have fixed Wednesday for hearing the case.

“There are no guidelines on the issue and trial courts are at a loss when to exercise their discretion and when not to exercise their discretion...,” the letter states.

The commission approached the court following a recent development in a three-year-old rape case wherein the victim had converted to Islam in order to marry the accused during the trial.