Highly objectionable': SC criticises HC for trying to advise adolescents

Judges are not expected to "preach" through their orders and judgments, the Supreme Court asserted on Friday as it partially stayed an October 18 Calcutta high court judgment that suggested every female adolescent should "control sexual urges" and "protect her right to integrity of her body".

- Utkarsh Anand

The high court's judgment added that "in the eyes of the society she (a female adolescent) is the loser when she gives in to enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes".

Disapproving of the high court's opinions and staying the portion in the judgment that dealt with "model behaviour" for adolescents, a bench of justices AS Oka and Pankaj Mithal called the impugned observations "highly objectionable and copletely unwarranted".

"Judges are not expected to express their personal views or preach... The said observations are completely in violation of the right of the adolescents under Article 21 (right to live with dignity) under the Constitution," said the bench in proceedings that were initiated suo motu (on its own motion).