The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha, has advised courts to avoid making patriarchal remarks in judgments. This came up when the court was hearing a plea seeking to review the death penalty of a convict found guilty of kidnapping and murdering a 7-year-old boy.
The bench observed that the Supreme Court, in its previous appeal upholding the death penalty, had considered the killing of a male child to be an aggravating factor. In its ruling rejecting the appeal, the Supreme Court had stated that “deliberately killing the only male child has serious consequences for the parents of the deceased. The grief of losing their only male child, who was supposed to carry forward the family lineage and take care of them in their old age, is unimaginable. This extreme suffering experienced by the victim’s family adds to the aggravating circumstances.”
During the review proceedings of a case concerning the death penalty awarded to a convict for the kidnapping and murder of a 7-year old boy, a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Hima Kohli, and Justice PS Narasimha of the Supreme Court criticized the patriarchal remarks made in the previous appeal judgment. The court explicitly stated that the gender of the child cannot be an aggravating factor and that it should not matter whether the child was a male or a female. The judgment further cautioned against promoting the idea that only a male child can carry forward the family lineage or assist the parents in old age, as such comments reinforce patriarchal values that should be avoided by the courts, regardless of the circumstances.
In the case of Aparna Bhat and others vs State of Madhya Pradesh and others, the Supreme Court provided guidelines to Courts in 2021 to prevent patriarchal and misogynistic remarks in their judgments. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had imposed a bail condition in a sexual harassment case that required the accused to get rakhi tied by the victim, which was later set aside by a bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and S Ravindra Bhat. The bench instructed Courts to avoid expressing any stereotype opinions during proceedings or judicial orders that suggest women are physically weak and need protection, incapable of making decisions on their own, or that men are the head of the household and should make all family decisions. Additionally, Courts were advised to refrain from making remarks that suggest women should be submissive, obedient, sexually chaste, that motherhood is the duty of every woman, or that being alone at night or wearing certain clothes makes women responsible for being attacked. The Court also warned against justifying unwelcome advances by men or suspecting testimonial evidence provided by sexually active women in assessing consent in sexual offence cases. Furthermore, the Court noted that lack of evidence of physical harm in sexual offence cases should not lead to an inference of consent by the woman.
Source: https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/courts-should-not-further-the-notion-that-only-male-child-will-assist-parents-in-old-age-avoid-patriarchal-remarks-supreme-court-224418