NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that groping a female and undoing her pajama chain constitutes “attempted rape” and overturned the controversial judgment of the Allahabad HC court that termed the crime not as an “attempt” but “preparation to commit rape”, which attracts a lesser punishment, and is classified as an assault on a woman’s modesty. The HC judgment on March 17, 2025 created a huge stir and the Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the case after a letter from the NGO ‘We the Women’ through its founder president and senior human rights advocate Shobha Gupta. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalia Bagchi and N V Angaria set aside the apex court’s ruling and revived the original stringent charge of attempt to rape against the two persons under the Buxu Act. Referring to appeals by Gupta and senior advocate HS Phoolka for more sensitivity in judges while dealing with sexual offenses against women, the bench said: “No judge or arbiter of any court can be expected to do complete justice when he is reckless towards the factual facts of the litigant and the vulnerabilities they may face when approaching a court of law.” Writing the ruling, Kant said the judges’ efforts “must not only be based on the proper application of constitutional and legal principles, but must also foster an environment of compassion and empathy. The absence of any of these basic pillars will prevent judicial institutions from properly performing their crucial duties.” “Our decisions as participants in the legal process, from establishing the procedures that ordinary citizens must face to the final judgment delivered in any given case, must reflect the spirit of compassion, humanity and understanding, which are essential to creating a fair and effective justice system,” the bench said.
The Supreme Court said that it has laid down principles for sensitizing judges and will therefore refrain from taking an open-ended approach to formulate new guidelines without guidance. It asked National Judicial Academy Director Justice Anirudh Bose to constitute a committee of experts to prepare a “comprehensive report” on “developing guidelines for inculcating sensitivity and compassion in judges and judicial processes in the context of sexual offenses and other vulnerable cases”. “We expect that the guidelines will not be laden with heavy and complex expressions drawn from foreign languages and jurisdictions,” said the ICJ-led council, which also called the “Guide to Combating Gender Stereotypes” issued by then CJI DY Cha-ndrachud “Harvard-oriented.”
