SC Flags Patna HC Order Trivialising "Attempt To Rape"

SC Flags Patna HC Order Trivialising "Attempt To Rape"

Following its February 2025 suo motu intervention against an Allahabad High Court ruling that grabbing a minor's breasts and tearing clothing wasn't "attempt to rape" but mere aggravated sexual assault, the Supreme Court (CJI Surya Kant, Justices Bagchi and Mohana) learned a Patna High Court order had repeated near-identical regressive reasoning. The Bench criticized High Courts for inadequate research before contradicting settled SC positions, and stressed offensive local-dialect phrasing often masks victims' trauma. It approved a National Judicial Academy handbook (headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose) on judicial sensitivity in sexual-offence cases, directing all courts, State DGPs, and prosecution directors to follow it, and ordering its circulation to judicial academies and NLUs for training.