NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the registry of the Allahabad High Court to redact the name of the complainant mother in the records in a case of an alleged rape attempt in which the High Court made the controversial observations.
The HC in its order on March 17, had observed that acts of grabbing a child victim's breasts, breaking the string of her pyjama did not constitute the offence of rape or attempt to rape.
When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday before a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih, senior lawyer H S Phoolka, appering for - Just Rights for Children Alliance, sought the plea to be tagged with the suo motu proceedings, which would be heard on April 15.
Phoolka added that it was unfortunate that the HC had mentioned the name of the victim's mother, who is the complainant, and there are number of orders of this court that the name should be redacted to protect the victim and her family members.
After hearing this, the bench of the top court allowed Phoolka's plea and said, the plea would be heard along with the suo motu proceedings.
The top court also said, in the meantime, we directed the registry of the high court to redact the name of the victim's mother.
Another plea -- of the survivor's mother - challenging the High Court's order was pending before the SC for disposal.
On March 26, the top court stayed the HC order and said it reflected total "insensitivity" and "inhuman approach".
March 26, the Apex Court took a strong exception to the High Court's observations and called it a "very serious matter".
On March 25, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance (SMC) of the Allahabad HC's verdict and decided to hear the case in its ownThe suo motu case was titled by the SC as, 'In Re: Order dated 17.03.2025 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in a Criminal Revision and Ancillary Issues'.
Indian judiciary holds a unique power known as SMC (On its own motion), which allows courts to take up matters on their own initiative, without any formal petition or complaint being filed.
The SC's stand on taking SMC reflects the judiciary’s proactive stance in safeguarding the rights of individuals and maintaining the rule of law.
The Allahabad High Court's single judge, Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra, had made the controversial observations on March 17 while modifying a summoning order.
As per the prosecution, the accused, Pawan and Akash, allegedly grabbed the breasts of an 11-year-old victim. Thereafter, one of them broke the string of her pyjama and attempted to drag her beneath a culvert and allegedly tried to rape her. But due to the intervention of passers-by, they couldn't proceed further.
Hearing the case, the trial court in Uttar Pradesh slapped Section 376 (attempt to commit rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with Section 18 of the POCSO Act and issued a summoning order under these provisions.
But the accused duo moved the HC challenging the summoning orders against them.
Justice Mishra, in the ruling said, the allegation against accused Pawan and Akash is that they grabbed the breasts of the victim and Akash tried to bring down lower garment of the victim and for that purpose they had broken string of her lower garments and tried to drag her beneath the culvert, but due to intervention of witnesses they left the victim and fled away from the place of incident.
"This fact is not sufficient to draw an inference that the accused persons had determined to commit rape on victim as apart from these facts no other act is attributed to them to further their alleged desire to commit rape on the victim," he said.
The High Court had altered the charges against the two accused, who were originally summoned to stand trial under Section 376 of the IPC and Section 18 (Punishment for attempt to commit an offence) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The HC in its order noted and observed that there was no material on record to suggest that the accused had a determined intent to commit rape on the victim.