Supreme Court: The Supreme Court has quashed the decision of the Calcutta High Court advising the teenagers to control their sexual desires. The apex court has again convicted the accused of raping a minor. The Supreme Court had objected to the advice given by the High Court to the teenagers and had taken suo motu cognizance. Earlier, the lower court had also convicted him.
The Supreme Court has reinstated the conviction of the accused of raping a minor. The special thing is that the accused started living with the minor after the crime and both of them have a child. The court has also formed a committee to talk to the victim to find out whether she wants to live with the accused or not. The punishment will be decided after the committee submits its report to the West Bengal government.
On Tuesday, the case was being heard by Justice Abhay S Oak and Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan. Justice Oak said, “We have restored the conviction under section 376. The committee will decide on the punishment. We have given instructions to the states….” He said, “This matter should be sent to the JJ Board. We had said how the judgment should be written. We have instructed all the states to implement section 19(6) of the JJ Act. We have also formed a committee of three experts.”
The apex court had criticised the judgement on December 8 last year and termed it as ‘absolutely objectionable and unnecessary’ remarks of the High Court. The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance of some of the remarks of the High Court and started hearing it as a writ petition. The apex court had said that judges are not expected to ‘preach’ while writing the judgement.
what did the high court say
In its order dated October 18, 2023, the High Court had said that adolescent girls should ‘control their sexual desires’ because ‘when they do this for two minutes of pleasure, they are proved to be losers in the eyes of society.’ The court had acquitted the accused. Whereas, earlier the lower court had convicted him.