Supreme Court stays Allahabad HC order that grabbing child’s breasts is not attempt to rape

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Allahabad High Court’s recent order, which said that acts of grabbing a child’s breasts, breaking the string of her pyjama and attempting to drag her beneath a culvert do not constitute the offence of attempt to rape or rape, Live Law reported.

The matter was heard by a bench of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih.

The bench had taken suo motu cognisance of the matter on Tuesday, a day after another bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Prasanna B Varale dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed against the High Court order.

The bench of Gavai and Masih said that the High Court’s observations were “shocking”, Live Law reported.

“We are at pains to say that some of the observations made in the impugned judgement, particularly paras 21, 24 and 26, depict a total lack of sensitivity on the part of the author of the judgement,” the bench was quoted as saying.

The Supreme Court noted that the High Court had delivered the ruling after reserving it for nearly four months, not on the spot, which meant that the judge had given the verdict after consideration and application of mind, Live Law reported.

The bench stayed the High Court order saying that the observations were “totally unknown to the tenets of law and depict total insensitivity and...

Read more