Victim’s mother moves Supreme Court against Allahabad High Court order on rape attempt

The Supreme Court, in late March, had stayed the Allahabad High Court order of March 17 passed by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The mother of a minor victim who was sexually attacked and partially disrobed by two men joined cause in a suo motu case instituted by the Supreme Court against an Allahabad High Court order which refused to see the assault as an attempted rape.

A Single Judge of the High Court had said the men could be at best charged with the lesser offence of “outraging of modesty”, and not attempted rape, for sexually assaulting the child and breaking her pyjama strings.

According to the prosecution version, the duo had given the victim a lift on their bike, grabbed her breasts, broke the string of her pyjama and tried to drag her beneath a culvert before they fled when passers-by spotted them.

Also Read | Supreme Court stays Allahabad High Court’s ‘inhuman’ remarks on rape attempt

“The action in question, committed with clear sexual intent, are direct steps in furtherance of rape and should not be dismissed as mere ‘outraging of modesty’. It is submitted the respondents [accused] did not stop committing the crime voluntarily, rather they were forced to flee the scene only on the sudden intervention of passers-by,” the petition filed by the mother along with an NGO, Just Rights for Children Alliance, argued.

The petition, represented by senior advocate H.S. Phoolka, came up for hearing before a Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai. The Bench tagged the plea with the suo motu case, which would come up on April 15.

The plea said the High Court had failed to consider other cognisable offences against the accused, abduction and procuration of a minor girl for illicit intercourse, besides attempted rape and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The Supreme Court, in late March, had stayed the Allahabad High Court order of March 17 passed by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra. The High Court order had come on a revision plea filed by the accused against a summons from the trial court on the charge of rape.

The top court remarked the order of the High Court was “totally insensitive, inhuman” and “unknown to the tenets of law”.

Justice Gavai pointed out that certain paragraphs of the order, which graphically recounted the trauma endured by the minor victim at the hands of the two accused persons only to conclude their actions did not show any determination on the part of duo to rape her showed a “complete lack of sensitivity”.

The Supreme Court had been assisted by Attorney-General of India R. Venkataramani and Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who urged the Bench to examine the suo motu case with great care.

The court had issued notice to the Union government and the State of Uttar Pradesh in the previous hearing on March 26. The mother of the minor victim was also given liberty at the time to implead herself in the case.