NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict in connection with the suo motu cognisance case initiated by it in the wake of a the Calcutta High Court ruling that had called for adolescent girls to “control” their sexual urges instead of “giving in to two minutes of pleasure”.A two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, that had reserved its verdict in May, is scheduled to pronounce its judgement on August 20.The Calcutta High Court in its verdict on October 18 last year, had made the observations in a case while acquitting a man, who was earlier convicted by a lower court for raping a minor girl with whom he had a ‘romantic affair’.The Calcutta HC bench had advised young girls and boys to rein in their sexual urges.After this, the Supreme Court on December 7, had taken suo motu cognizance of the verdict of the Calcutta High Court and decided to hear the case. The top court had said that these observations were completely in violation of the rights of adolescents under Article 21 of the Constitution and had appointed senior lawyer and former Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Madhavi Divan as Amicus Curiae (Friend of the court) in the case to assist the court.The West Bengal government had also moved the SC against this Calcutta HC verdict. The Supreme Court had earlier criticised the remarks of the Calcutta HC terming it as “sad and unfortunate”. It further said that the judges should not express their personal beliefs or opinions or try to preach. The apex court was also critical of some part of the Calcutta High Court’s verdict, which was delivered by a division bench, headed by Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash and Partha Sarathi Sen.The top court termed the observations of the judges as “highly objectionable and completely unwarranted”. It also said that the remarks passed by the HC was prima facie uncalled for.The Calcutta HC, while acquitting an accused who was booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other sections, had made these controversial observations.
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