The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear on May 2 the case related to the Calcutta High Court’s decision in which judges advised teenage girls to ‘control their sexual desires’.
The court had said that girls should control their sexual desires for two minutes. The top court will also hear the appeal filed by the West Bengal government in this regard on the same day.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjwal Bhuyan had taken cognizance of certain observations made by a division bench of the High Court in a case of alleged sexual harassment.
The bench said the appeal filed by West Bengal against the High Court’s October 18, 2023 verdict will also be heard on the same day.
The apex court had on December 8 last year criticized the verdict and termed some of the observations made by the high court as ‘highly objectionable and completely inappropriate’.
The top court, which had issued a suo motu writ petition, said judges are not expected to ‘preach’ while writing judgments. The High Court had said in its judgment that adolescent girls should ‘control their sexual desires’ because “in the eyes of the society, she becomes worthless when she is barely able to enjoy two minutes of sexual pleasure.” Let’s get ready for it.”
The high court made the remarks while hearing the appeal of a man who was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for sexual assault.
The High Court had acquitted the man. Both the writ petition and the state’s appeal came up for hearing before the top court on Friday. The counsel appearing for the state government said that the apex court has issued notice to the alleged victim and his presence along with the lawyer is necessary.
The bench said that he will have to appear before the court along with his lawyer. Listing the writ petition and the state’s appeal for hearing on May 2, the bench said the girl will have to appear before it on March 7.
The top court, in the hearing on January 4, had observed that some paragraphs in the high court’s judgment were ‘problematic’ and writing such a judgment was ‘absolutely wrong’.