New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Allahabad High Court’s controversial order which stated that grabbing the breasts of a minor girl, breaking the string of her pyjama and trying to drag her beneath a culvert could be termed as attempt to rape. Last week, the Allahabad HC’s single-judge bench of Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra had made these observations while modifying the charges by a lower court against two men who were accused of rape.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice AG Masih heard the matter. The top court’s bench expressed strong disagreement with the high court’s verdict. The bench also termed the HC’s judgment as ‘shocking’.
“We are at pains to say that some of the observations made in the impugned judgment, particularly paras 21, 24, and 26, depict a total lack of sensitivity on the part of the author of the judgment” the bench observed in the order,” the Supreme Court Bench stated as reported by Live Law.
The bench said that the judgment by the Allahabad HC was not at the spur of the moment but was delivered four months after revising it.
“It was not even at the spur of the moment and was delivered four months after reserving the same. Thus, there was application of mind. We are usually hesitant to grant stay at this stage. But since observations in paragraphs 21, 24 and 26 is unknown to cannons of law and shows inhuman approach, we stay the observations in said paras,” the top court stated as reported by NDTV. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was also reportedly agreed agreed with the Supreme Court’s bench.
Allahabad HC’s Judgment:
On March 20, the Allahabad HC’s single-judge bench had observed that grabbing the breasts of the victim, breaking the string of her pyjama and trying to drag her beneath the culvert before fleeing the spot can not be considered rape or an attempt to rape. The HC bench observed that the act would prima facie constitute the offence of ‘aggravated sexual assault’ under the POCSO Act.
“The allegations levelled against the accused Pawan and Akash and facts of the case hardly constitute an offence of attempt to rape in the case. In order to bring out a charge of attempt to rape the prosecution must establish that it had gone beyond the stage of preparation,” the bench of Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra observed as reported by Live Law.
“The difference between preparation and actual attempt to commit an offence consists chiefly in the greater degree of determination,” the bench had added.
