"Breaking Pyjama String" Verdict: Supreme Court Overturns Allahabad HC's Rape Attempt Ruling

The Supreme Court has set aside the Allahabad High Court's decision from March 17, 2025 which had held the acts of grabbing a minor girl’s breasts, breaking the string of her pyjama and attempting to pull down her lower garment were insufficient to infer an attempt to rape.

A CJI Surya Kant led bench while setting aside the impugned judgment dated has ordered that the original summons order passed by the Special Judge (POCSO), Kasganj be restored.

"It goes without saying that the observations made by this Court through this judgment are only from a prima facie perspective on the case made by the complainant, and they shall not be taken to be any opinion on the guilt of the accused persons, which is the subject matter of the ongoing trial", the court's judgment clarifies.

Notably, Supreme Court has also requested the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, to constitute a Committee of Experts to prepare a comprehensive report on the matter of ‘Developing Guidelines to Inculcate Sensitivity and Compassion into Judges and Judicial Processes in the Context of Sexual Offences and other Vulnerable Cases’.

"The Committee shall consider the previous measures undertaken, whether on the judicial side or the administrative side, to achieve such goals, as well as the varying results seen on the ground through the implementation of such measures. Further, after taking into account such previous endeavours and the variety of on-ground experiences faced by different stakeholders across the judicial system, prepare comprehensive recommendations. These recommendations shall be in the form of ‘Draft Guidelines for the Approach of Judges and the Judicial System When Dealing with Cases of Sexual Offences and other Similarly Sensitive Occurrences Involving Vulnerable Victims, Complainants, and/or Witnesses’", the judgment adds.

Court has further urged the Committee of Experts to keep in mind that the primary beneficiaries of these Guidelines are the victims/complainants, majority of whom are children, women of tender age, and members of vulnerable sections of society. As such, the Committee has been asked to ensure that the Draft Guidelines are devised in a manner so that they may be understood and utilized easily by such persons, irrespective of their background and means.

While hearing the case on February 10, 2025 Court also called for review of its 'Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes', published by Supreme Court in 2023 under the initiative of Harvard-educated former CJI DY Chandrachud to sensitise and assist judges and lawyers on gender-unjust terms. The bench called the Handbook too technical and Harvard-oriented to be of any assistance to common people.

In December 2025 Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi's bench had made it clear that the High Court’s conclusions would be set aside and that the criminal trial must proceed unhindered. Bench had further said it was open to issuing guidelines to curb prejudicial and insensitive observations in sexual-offence cases. “These comments can have a chilling effect on victims. Sometimes such modalities are also adopted to pressure them into withdrawing the complaint,” the CJI observed.

Previously, on April 15, the top court had taken strong exception to the observations made by the Allahabad High Court, in a case where it had granted bail to a man accused of rape while noting that the victim, being an adult and educated, had "invited trouble" upon herself.

Notably, Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh of the Allahabad High Court while allowing bail to the accused had remarked in the controversial judgment that even if the woman’s allegations were accepted as true, it could still be concluded that she was also responsible for the incident. In view of this, former Justice Gavai had remarked, “If one wants to grant bail, it should be granted. But why make observations like she invited all this trouble and so on?”

Following this verdict, on 26 March, 2025 the Supreme Court issued notice to the Union government and the Uttar Pradesh government in the suo motu proceedings while staying the impugned judgment of the Allahabad High Court. The ruling had sparked widespread criticism. It was delivered on March 17, 2025, by a single-judge bench of Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra while modifying a trial court’s summoning order against two accused, Pawan and Akash. According to the prosecution case, the accused had allegedly assaulted an 11-year-old girl, with Akash breaking the string of her lower garment and attempting to drag her beneath a culvert. However, the assault was interrupted by passersby, causing the accused to flee.

“In the present case, 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,” the high court had observed.

High court had also noted that the specific allegation against one of the accused was that he attempted to drag the victim beneath the culvert and broke the string of her pyjama. However, it found that there was no statement from witnesses indicating that this act resulted in the victim becoming naked or undressed.

Case Title: In Re: Order Dated 17.03.2025 Passed By The High Court Of Judicature At Allahabad In Criminal Revision No. 1449/2024 And Ancillary Issue

Judgment Date: February 10, 2025

Bench: CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice NV Anjaria