The Madras High Court has published a new handbook titled ‘Judgments and Gender’ on its official website. This initiative aims to guide judges in writing orders for cases involving sexual offences and other vulnerable victims and witnesses. The handbook aligns with a directive from the Supreme Court, which emphasizes the need for sensitivity and compassion in legal judgments concerning these sensitive matters.
The document has a glossary of words judges should avoid, guidance on courtroom conduct, victim protection and compensation. The Supreme Court’s order, reproduced in the handbook, states that “no judge or judgment of any court can be expected to do complete justice when it is inconsiderate towards the factual realities of a litigant. “…it is essential to ensuring fairness, dignity, and impartiality in adjudication. It sets out rape shield protections against victim blaming, discusses cross-examination limits on questioning a survivor’s sexual history.
It says sensitive judicial language is therefore not merely a matter of politeness. A Committee of Experts headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose, Director of the National Judicial Academy (NJA), Bhopal, drafted the handbook after the Supreme Court ordered its preparation in February 2026. The document traces 27 Supreme Court judgments on workplace harassment and reproductive autonomy. It reviews 125 trial court judgments.
The handbook sets out compassionate court practices such as in-camera trials for sexual offences under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, pre-trial victim counselling, video-link testimony for child and vulnerable witnesses, and treating witnesses “as guests” rather than making them wait for days.
The Supreme Court issued its direction while hearing a suo motu case arising from an Allahabad high court order that softened charges in a case involving a minor girl.
The Allahabad high court held that an accused who “grabbed the breasts” and “tried to bring down lower garment” of the girl should not be charged with attempt to rape, ruling that the conduct amounted only to “preparation. The bench had said that the material be written in simple language, free of “heavy, complicated expressions borne from foreign languages and jurisdictions. The push came after some criticism of the Supreme Court’s 2023 ‘Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes’, which was called “too Harvard-oriented” for a rape survivor or an ordinary litigant to use.
