New Delhi:The Supreme Court Thursday criticised the Calcutta High Court judgment, which advised adolescent girls to "control sexual urges" and young men to train themselves to respect women.
Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for West Bengal, informed a bench comprising Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan that the state has filed an appeal in the apex court against the October 18 last year verdict of the High Court. Ahmadi said the appeal was listed today before another bench of this court, and that bench, unfortunately, could not sit.
The apex court said the suo motu writ petition and the appeal filed by the state will have to be heard together and stressed that "it is not only about observations. See the kind of findings….".
The bench said many findings have been recorded by the High Court and added, "From where these concepts come, we don’t know. But we want to deal with each and everything which is said…..".
The apex court asked the registry to list the suo motu writ petition and the state government’s appeal on January 12, after obtaining approval from the Chief Justice of India.
On December 8, the Supreme Court said judges are not expected to "preach and express personal views" in dealing with cases. It made this observation while issuing notice to the West Bengal government and others in a suo motu case registered as 'In Re: Right to Privacy of Adolescent' arising out of the High Court's judgment of October 18, 2023.
The apex court had found the Calcutta High Court's suggestions that every female adolescent should "control sexual urge/urges" and "protect her right to integrity of her body", as prima facie "highly objectionable, completely unwarranted and in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution".
The High Court had pronounced the judgment in a case related to kidnapping for the purpose of marriage and other offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The apex court had said there was absolutely no reasoning given by the High Court, in its order acquitting the accused, and scheduled the matter for further hearing on January 4, 2024.
The apex court said that as per the order of the Chief Justice of India, a 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.
The division of the High Court, on October 18, 2023, had suggested that every female adolescent should "control sexual urge/urges" and "protect her right to integrity of her body". The High Court, for male adolescents, had said they should "respect the duties of a young girl or woman and he should train his mind to respect a woman, herself worth, her dignity and privacy, and right to autonomy of her body".
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