Why Has CJI Surya Kant Decided To Revisit Supreme Court's 2023 Gender Stereotypes Handbook?

The Supreme Court recently 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,

A CJI Surya Kant led bench has called the Handbook too technical and Harvard-oriented to be of any assistance to common people.

As the top court was hearing a suo motu case registered against the insensitive Allahabad High Court judgment that had ruled 'grabbing the breasts' and 'loosening the pyjama string' did not amount to attempt to rape, a bench also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and NV Anjaria said the handbook gave forensic meanings to different aspects of sexual assault.

CJI Kant went on to ask the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal to constitute a panel comprising domain experts, academicians and lawyers to revisit the issue, frame a guideline and submit a report to the apex court.

The bench also 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.

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?”

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,” observed the high court.

High court 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 Issues

Hearing Date: February 12, 2025

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