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Supreme Court of India. (File photo)
The Calcutta High Court in its judgment in September last year stated that female teenagers should “control their sexual impulses”.
The Supreme Court is set to pronounce its order on August 20 on the plea challenging the Calcutta High Court's 2023 judgment which acquitted the accused in the sexual assault case and made “objectionable” observations advising teenage girls to “control their sexual impulses”.
On December 8 last year, the Supreme Court criticized this judgment, saying that some of the High Court's views were “extremely inappropriate and baseless.”
The Supreme Court had taken note of some observations made by a division bench of the High Court and filed a writ petition on its own, stating that judges should not be “preachy” while writing judgments.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan is likely to pronounce judgment on the appeal filed by the West Bengal government against the High Court's October 18, 2023 judgment and suo motu petition on August 20.
In its judgment, the High Court stated that a female teenager should “control her sexual impulses” because “when she succumbs to sexual pleasure for less than two minutes, she is a failure in the eyes of society.”
The High Court made the remarks as it heard an appeal by a man sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexual assault. The man was acquitted by the High Court.
On January 4, when hearing the case, the Supreme Court pointed out that certain paragraphs in the High Court's judgment were “problematic” and that writing such a judgment was “absolutely wrong.”
In its order passed on December 8 last year, the Supreme Court referred to certain observations of the High Court and said: “Prima facie, the above observations are in complete violation of the rights of juveniles (right to life) guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.” and personal freedoms) of the Indian Constitution. It noted that the issue before the High Court was regarding the legality and validity of the order and judgment dated 19/20 September 2022, pursuant to which a man was convicted of Section 363 (kidnapping) and Offenses under Section 366 (Kidnapping, abduction or seduction of women).
“The suo motu writ petition was initiated under Article 32 of the Constitution of India on the orders of the Chief Justice of India, mainly due to the comprehensive observations/findings recorded by the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court in the impugned judgment,” it said.
The Supreme Court said in the appeal against the conviction that the High Court ruled only on the merits of the appeal and nothing else.
“But we find that the High Court discussed a number of irrelevant issues. On the face of it, we are of the view that judges should not express personal views when writing judgments on such appeals. They should not preach,” it said.
In its verdict, the High Court acquitted the man, saying it was “a case of non-exploitative consensual sexual relations between two teenagers, although consent was immaterial given the age of the victims”.
The High Court said that it is the duty/duty of every female adolescent to “protect her right to physical integrity; to protect her dignity and self-worth; to transcend gender barriers and achieve all-round development of herself; to control her sexual impulses because in the eyes of society, she is She is a loser when she gives in to less than two minutes of sexual pleasure; protect her bodily autonomy and privacy.”
“A male adolescent has a duty to respect the above obligations of a young girl or woman and he should train his mind to respect a woman, her self-worth, her dignity and privacy and her bodily autonomy,” the high court said.
(This report has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from United News Agency-PTI)
