Following,abusing a woman few times cannot be said to be compromising decency of a woman:High Court

By DAYANAND MOHITE | published: January 02, 2024 01:09 PM 2019-02-12T14:15:30+5:30

city : mumbai

The complainant woman alleged that the petitioner had followed her couple of times and abused her and on the date of incident, while she was going to market, the petitioner, who was following her on bicycle, pushed/shoved her. She said in her complaint that she got annoyed, however, she proceeded further and the petitioner followed her and, therefore, she beat him.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court recently acquitted a person of charges of outraging the modesty of a woman, holding that the act of following and abusing a few times cannot be said to be capable to shock the sense of decency of a woman.

High Court was hearing an appeal against the conviction

Justice Anil L Pansare said this while hearing a plea filed by a person convicted for the offence under section 354 (Outraging the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years.

What did the woman allege?

Justice Pansare, citing Supreme Court verdicts, said that the essence of a woman’s modesty is her sex which she possesses by birth.

The High Court cited Supreme Court verdict

“The Supreme Court has held that the ultimate test for ascertaining whether modesty has been outraged is whether the action of the offender is such as could be perceived as one which is capable of shocking the sense of decency of a woman,” Justice Pansare noted, while observing that all that has been done by the petitioner is that he has on bicycle given a push to the complainant, who stated that he had earlier followed her couple of times and abused her, while she was going to market.

What did the High Court order?

The High Court, regarding following and abusing the complainant by the petitioner, said that the “Said act cannot be said to be capable to shocking the sense of decency of a woman. The act may be annoying but definitely would not shock the sense of decency of a woman.”

The High Court further noted that it is not the case of the complainant that the petitioner has touched her inappropriately or has given push at a specific part of her body which made her position embarrassing and the contact with the part of the body of the complainant has been not stated by her.

“In these circumstances, merely because the applicant has on bicycle given a push to PW1 (woman), to my mind cannot be said to be an act which is capable of shocking the sense of decency of PW1. The act may be offensive or annoying but cannot be said to be compromising the decency of a woman. That being so, in my considered view, the courts below have committed an error in holding the applicant guilty for the offence punishable under section 354 of the IPC,” the High Court said while acquitting the petitioner of the charges.

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