‘What is happening in this High Court?’ Supreme Court frowns upon repeated remarks from Allahabad HC hurtful to women victims of sexual offences

While one judge of the High Court ruled that groping a minor and breaking her pyjama string did not add up to attempted rape, another judge granted bail to a rape accused stating that ‘victim herself invited trouble’

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (April 15, 2025) voiced perplexity at repeated judicial observations in orders emanating from the Allahabad High Court, one of the oldest and largest constitutional courts in the country, displaying an insensitive outlook towards women.

Days after a Single Judge of the High Court, Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra, concluded that groping a minor and breaking her pyjama string did not add up to the grievous crime of attempted rape, another judge of the same High Court, Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh, granted bail to a rape accused while remarking the survivor “invited trouble and was responsible for the same”.

‘Why make all these observations?’

“What is happening in this High Court? Now this is another judge from the same High Court saying such things… Why make all these observations? One has to be very careful with these cases which are so sensitive,” Justice B.R. Gavai, heading a Bench with Justice A.G. Masih, remarked.

The court was hearing a suo motu case on the order passed by Justice Mishra on March 17.

“Justice should not only be done, but seen to be done. What will the common man perceive from these remarks?” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is assisting the apex court in the suo motu case, submitted.

The Bench adjourned the suo motu case, noting that the service of the pleadings among the parties was incomplete.

On March 17, Justice Mishra had said the two accused could at best be charged with the lesser offence of ‘outraging of modesty’ for sexually assaulting the child and breaking her pyjama strings.

According to the prosecution version, the duo had given the victim a lift on their bike, grabbed her breasts, broke the string of her pyjama and tried to drag her beneath a culvert before they fled when passers-by spotted them.

“The action in question, committed with clear sexual intent, are direct steps in furtherance of rape and should not be dismissed as mere ‘outraging of modesty’. It is submitted the respondents [accused] did not stop committing the crime voluntarily, rather they were forced to flee the scene only on the sudden intervention of passersby,” a petition filed by the mother along with an NGO, Just Rights for Children Alliance, represented by senior advocate H.S. Phoolka has argued.

The Supreme Court, in late March, had stayed the Allahabad High Court order of March 17.

The High Court order had been based on a revision plea filed by the accused against a summons from the trial court on the charge of rape.

The apex court had remarked the order of the High Court was “totally insensitive, inhuman” and “unknown to the tenets of law”.

Justice Gavai had pointed out that certain paragraphs of the order, which graphically recounted the trauma endured by the minor victim at the hands of the two accused persons only to conclude their actions did not show any determination on the part of duo to rape her showed a “complete lack of sensitivity”.

Published - April 15, 2025 02:10 pm IST