SC approves judicial sensitivity guidelines for sexual offence cases, flags repeated insensitive court orders

Patna, July 15: The Supreme Court on Tuesday approved a comprehensive set of guidelines aimed at ensuring greater judicial sensitivity in sexual offence cases, while expressing concern over repeated instances of insensitive observations in court orders despite its earlier interventions.

 

 

The development came during the hearing of a matter in which advocate Kanu Agrawal Gupta, along with Senior Advocate H.S. Phoolka, informed the Court that the Patna High Court had recently passed an order containing

observations held that allegations of attempting to remove a woman's salwar and physically molesting by pressing her chest do not constitute 'attempt to rape'. similar to those made earlier by the Allahabad High Court. The Allahabad High Court's order had been taken up suo motu and set aside by the Supreme Court in February this year.

 

Gupta submitted that despite the Supreme Court's earlier ruling, similar judicial observations continued to surface. Calling the trend "troubling," he said such instances were happening repeatedly.

 

Responding to the submission, the bench led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) expressed concern over the apparent lack of thorough research before delivering judgments. The CJI said the Supreme Court would pass a detailed order dealing with the recent Patna High Court decision.

 

 

In a significant step, the Court also approved a report prepared by the Expert Committee of the National Judicial Academy (NJA), containing guidelines on judicial sensitivity in sexual offence cases. The Court directed all courts across the country to strictly adhere to the language and expressions recommended in the handbook while dealing with such cases.

 

The approved handbook will be uploaded on the websites of the Supreme Court, all High Courts and District Courts where websites are available. It will also be circulated to the National Judicial Academy, State Judicial Academies, National Law Universities and other university law departments to promote uniform judicial practices.

 

The Supreme Court further directed the Director of Prosecution and the Director General of Police of all States to issue instructions to every police station to follow the handbook while recording First Information Reports (FIRs) and filing charge sheets in sexual offence cases.

 

"The Committee has done a commendable job," the Chief Justice observed, adding that the guidelines would form part of the Court's judicial order.

 

 

The initiative traces its origins to the Supreme Court's order passed in February 2026, when it asked the National Judicial Academy to prepare comprehensive guidelines to ensure sensitivity and compassion in the handling of sexual offence and other vulnerable cases. The Court had emphasised that such guidelines must reflect India's social realities and legal framework, rather than being borrowed from foreign jurisdictions.

 

Following the direction, Justice Aniruddha Bose, former Supreme Court judge and Director of the National Judicial Academy, constituted an Expert Committee to draft the guidelines.

 

The Court had also requested the committee to identify offensive words and expressions used across different Indian languages and dialects that may discourage victims from fully narrating their experiences. The objective, the Court noted, was to empower survivors to present a complete account of the trauma they had endured while encouraging judges and investigators to adopt more sensitive language throughout the legal process.