The Supreme Court has come up with a comprehensive set of guidelines for courts to deal with sexual offence cases, in order to promote judicial sensitivity and compassion.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana has accepted the Expert Committee’s report and directed that the approved guidelines be incorporated into the judicial order. The Bench also appreciated the work undertaken by the Committee in preparing the handbook.
The Bench directed all courts across the country to strictly follow the terminology, expressions and standards prescribed in the approved handbook while adjudicating such matters.
To ensure uniform implementation, the Court directed that the handbook be uploaded on the official websites of the Supreme Court, all High Courts and District Courts wherever such websites are available. It further ordered that the guidelines be circulated to the National Judicial Academy, all State Judicial Academies, National Law Universities and the law departments of other universities for use in judicial training, legal education and capacity building.
The Court also issued directions to the Director of Prosecution and the Director General of Police of every State to ensure that necessary instructions are issued to all police stations. Investigating officers have been directed to adhere to the contents of the handbook while recording First Information Reports (FIRs), preparing case records and filing charge sheets in sexual offence cases. The directions are intended to ensure that victims are treated with dignity throughout the criminal justice process and that insensitive or inappropriate language is avoided during investigation and prosecution.
The detailed contents of the guidelines are expected to become available once the approved handbook and the complete judicial order are uploaded on the websites of the courts.
The directions were passed in a suo motu proceeding initiated by the Supreme Court following a controversial judgment of the Allahabad High Court, which had held that removing the drawstring of a minor girl’s pyjama and grabbing her breasts did not constitute an attempt to commit rape. The apex court had subsequently set aside that judgment, holding that courts dealing with sexual offences must adopt a victim-centric and constitutionally sensitive approach while interpreting criminal law.
While deciding the matter in February this year, the Supreme Court had directed the National Judicial Academy to formulate comprehensive draft guidelines aimed at inculcating sensitivity, empathy and compassion in judicial handling of sexual offence cases and other matters involving vulnerable victims. The Court had emphasised that such guidelines should be rooted in India’s constitutional values, legal framework and socio-cultural realities rather than being borrowed from foreign jurisdictions.
For this purpose, the Court had requested former Supreme Court judge Justice Aniruddha Bose, who serves as the Director of the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, to constitute an Expert Committee to prepare guidelines on developing sensitivity and compassion among judges and within judicial processes in cases involving sexual offences and other vulnerable categories of litigants.
The Supreme Court had also requested the Committee to identify and compile offensive words and expressions used in different Indian languages and local dialects that may amount to criminally offensive or derogatory language but are often used casually due to a lack of awareness about their harmful nature. The Court observed that identifying such expressions would help ensure that they are not normalised during judicial proceedings or criminal investigations and would enable complainants and survivors to narrate the full extent of the trauma and abuse they have experienced without their grievances being minimised or overlooked.
Pursuant to those directions, the Expert Committee submitted its report before the Supreme Court. After considering the recommendations, the Court approved the report in its entirety, making the guidelines an integral part of its directions for strengthening judicial sensitivity, victim-centric adjudication and fair administration of criminal justice in sexual offence cases across the country.
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