File photo of protests after the December 2012 Delhi gang-rape
The Supreme Court has sought a response from two lawyers who made outrageous comments on women in 'India's Daughter,' a documentary on the 2012 Delhi gang-rape.
ML Sharma and AK Singh are defence lawyers for the four men on death row for the brutal rape, torture and killing of a 23-year-old medical student in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012.
In the documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, Mr Sharma had said "there is no place for women in Indian culture."
Both AK Singh and he made several derogatory comments that had been received with shock and rage.
The court today responded to a petition by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, which asked for a ban on the entry of the lawyers and their apology.
"The comments made by these lawyers are biased, scandalous, inhumane and unjustifiable and these comments have caused sense of fear and insecurity among the women lawyers in the Supreme Court," the petition said.
ML Sharma had told NDTV that his views were misrepresented, alleging that the film-maker used only a part of what he said. "She took my interview for 10 days, showed only one line," he said. He added that he had committed no crime.
Lawyer AK Singh also said people who opposed him were "biased". He claimed to have received calls from people supporting his views.
"India's Daughter" featuring interviews of the student's parents, friends, lawyers and one of the rapists, was banned in India but was screened by the BBC earlier this month.