The Madras excessive court docket has uploaded a handbook titled ‘Judgments and Gender’ on its web site, asking judges to observe it whereas writing orders in instances involving sexual offences and different weak victims and witnesses in compliance with the Supreme Court docket’s directive on inculcating sensitivity and compassion in such judgments.
The doc has a glossary of phrases judges ought to keep away from, steering on courtroom conduct, sufferer safety and compensation.
The Supreme Court docket’s order, reproduced within the handbook, states that “no decide or judgment of any court docket could be anticipated to do full justice when it’s thoughtless in the direction of the factual realities of a litigant.” It says delicate judicial language is due to this fact not merely a matter of politeness. “…it’s important to making sure equity, dignity, and impartiality in adjudication.”
A Committee of Consultants headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose, Director of the Nationwide Judicial Academy (NJA), Bhopal, drafted the handbook after the Supreme Court docket ordered its preparation in February 2026.
The Supreme Court docket issued its route whereas listening to a suo motu case arising from an Allahabad excessive court docket order that softened expenses in a case involving a minor lady. The Allahabad excessive court docket held that an accused who “grabbed the breasts” and “tried to convey down decrease garment” of the lady shouldn’t be charged with try to rape, ruling that the conduct amounted solely to “preparation.”
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and NV Anjaria on February 10 put aside the order and directed the NJA to arrange pointers for judges coping with sexual offences and equally delicate issues.
The bench had mentioned that the fabric be written in easy language, freed from “heavy, difficult expressions borne from international languages and jurisdictions.” The push got here after some criticism of the Supreme Court docket’s 2023 ‘Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes’, which was known as “too Harvard-oriented” for a rape survivor or an atypical litigant to make use of.
The brand new doc narrows its scope. The 2023 handbook addressed gender stereotyping throughout marital, home and office contexts. The 2026 one confines itself to sexual offences and weak victims and witnesses.
The doc traces 27 Supreme Court docket judgments on office harassment and reproductive autonomy. It units out rape protect protections towards sufferer blaming, discusses cross-examination limits on questioning a survivor’s sexual historical past. It critiques 125 trial court docket judgments.
The majority of the doc is a glossary. It lists phrases akin to “prosecutrix,” “outraged the modesty,” “helpless feminine,” and “lust” as expressions to retire. It proposes “survivor,” “sexual assault” and “violation of bodily autonomy” as a substitute. It asks courts to drop phrases like “concubine, hold and mistress” in favour of “companion,” and to switch “prostitute” with “intercourse employee” besides the place a statute requires the older time period.
For gender-diverse communities, it recommends “intersex” over regional phrases akin to hijra, thirunangai and jogappa, calling the latter “implicitly pejorative.”
The handbook units out compassionate court docket practices akin to in-camera trials for sexual offences underneath the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, pre-trial sufferer counselling, video-link testimony for baby and weak witnesses, and treating witnesses “as friends” somewhat than making them await days.
As an annexure, the Madras excessive court docket handbook reproduces the NALSA Compensation Scheme for Girls Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault, 2018, a government-funded scheme underneath which cash is given to girls who’ve survived sexual assault or different critical crimes, on high of any punishment the courts hand right down to the accused.