The Supreme Court stated on Friday that it will hear the case related to a Calcutta High Court verdict on May 2, in which the judges had advised adolescent girls “to control sexual urges.”
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan had taken cognizance of some observations made by a division bench of the high court in a case of alleged sexual assault. The bench mentioned that the appeal filed by West Bengal against the October 18, 2023 verdict of the high court would also be heard on the same day.
On December 8 last year, the top court rebuked the verdict, terming some observations by the high court as “highly objectionable and completely unwarranted.” The apex court, which initiated a writ petition on its own, observed that judges are not expected to “preach” while writing judgments, as reported by PTI.
In its judgment, the high court had remarked that female adolescents should “control sexual urges” as in the “eyes of society she is the loser when she gives in to enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes.”
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These observations were made while hearing an appeal by a man who was awarded a 20-year sentence for sexual assault, and the high court had acquitted the man. Both the writ and the state’s appeal were heard before the apex court on Friday.
While listing the writ petition and the state’s appeal for hearing on May 2, the bench mentioned that the girl would, however, have to be present before it on March 7. During the January 4 hearing, the apex court had observed that certain paragraphs in the high court verdict were “problematic,” and writing such judgments was “absolutely wrong.”
In its order issued on December 8 last year, the apex court referred to specific remarks made by the high court, stating, “Prima facie, the mentioned observations are in clear violation of the rights of adolescents guaranteed under Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India.”
The apex court noted that the high court’s consideration involved the legality and validity of the order and judgment dated September 19/20, 2022, whereby a man was convicted of offenses under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping, abducting, or inducing a woman to compel her marriage) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“As per the order of the the Chief Justice of India, suo motu writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India has been initiated mainly due to sweeping observations/findings recorded by the division bench of the High Court of Calcutta in the impugned judgment,” it highlighted.
“But we find that the high court has discussed so many issues which were irrelevant. Prima facie, we are of the view that while writing a judgment in such appeal, the judges are not expected to express their personal views. They are not expected to preach,” the court stated.