The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) expresses its deep shock and strongly condemns the recent judgment of the Allahabad High Court, dated March 19, delivered by Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra, which stated that “grabbing the breast of a girl and breaking her pant string is not an attempt to rape, but an attempt to sexually molest.”
The judgment came in the context of an incident in 2021 when an 11-year-old girl was attacked by two men in Kasganj area of Uttar Pradesh. They grabbed her breast, broke the string of her salwar, and tried to push her under a bridge. However, due to the timely intervention of some passersby, the girl was rescued. A case was filed later by the girl’s mother, following which the accused approached the Allahabad High Court for relief.
In his interpretation of this incident, Justice Mishra, called it “preparation for the crime” and not “an actual attempt” and said that “we should understand the difference between the two.” By making such a false distinction, he has perpetuated the practice of belittling heinous acts of violence against women, and also violated Section 7 of the POCSO Act, under which “touching the sexual organs of a child or any act related to physical contact with sexual intentions will be considered sexual assault.”
This judgment is nothing but a blatant rejection of the core tenets of the Constitution. It is also a convoluted attempt to further institutionalise and legitimise the patriarchal ideology that thrives by reducing women to mere objects to be used and abused.
NFIW demands immediate revocation of this anti-women and anti-Constitutional judgment, as well as urgent removal of Justice Mishra who has demonstrated utter ignorance of existing legislations and has failed miserably to uphold the Constitutional principles of equality and justice to which he is duty bound by his position. By taking these urgent actions, a strong precedent needs to be set that we as a society will have zero tolerance for this dangerous practice of anti-women judgments, which have been increasing on a menacing scale.
General Secretary
Nisha Sidhu
President
Syeda Hameed
