Why the Supreme Court has issued new gender-sensitivity guidelines for trial judges

‘Compassionate court practices’

While the 2023 document largely focused on identifying and replacing stereotype-promoting language, the new report addresses the trauma that a victim faces in the criminal justice system. It notes that judges require an “Emotional Quotient” to supplement their “Intelligence Quotient” when discharging judicial functions.

The report highlights how survivors are routinely met with insensitive remarks from police and authorities, such as “samjhauta kar lo, ghar bach jayega (make a compromise, your house will be saved)” or “lipstick laali lagakar complaint likhwane aayi ho? (you have come to lodge a complaint wearing lipstick?)”. Such statements, instead of building a survivor’s confidence, it notes, traumatise them and deter them from seeking justice.

To combat this, the report recommends “compassionate court practices”. It urges judges to use the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam’s provisions that bar defence lawyers from asking indecent, scandalous and annoying questions. This is particularly relevant to questions about a survivor’s sexual history, which the report reiterates is immaterial to a rape trial.

The report also advocates treating witnesses as “guests” invited to help the court, rather than going through “long waits and poor treatment in court, which can discourage them from testifying”. It also recommends pre-trial counselling for victims to alleviate anxiety and that trials for sexual offences be held in camera – which means they are conducted in private, closed-door proceedings to protect the survivor’s privacy.

Shift in language

Both the new report and the 2023 handbook contain glossaries of terms to avoid, but their focus areas are different.

The 2023 handbook, issued under then Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, was designed to replace colloquial or archaic words with neutral legal terms. For instance, it advised judges to use “street sexual harassment” instead of “eve teasing”, “homemaker” instead of “housewife”, and “woman who has engaged in sexual relations outside of marriage” instead of “adulteress”. It also elaborated on the need to dismantle assumptions about women’s supposedly inherent characteristics, such as the idea that women are overly emotional or that all women want to have children.

The 2026 report, on the other hand, targets the moralistic terms recurring in trial court judgments. After analysing 125 trial court verdicts, the Justice Bose-led committee curated a list of problematic phrases to avoid. For example, it suggests replacing the phrase “the body of women as play ground” with “violated bodily autonomy”. Instead of writing that a crime “destroys the very soul of a helpless woman”, judges are advised to write that the crime “caused severe trauma to the survivor”.

It asks judges to avoid terms like “lost her chastity” or “helpless female” and to refrain from using religious or cultural references like “where women are honoured, there the gods rejoice”, advising them to focus strictly on legal rights instead.

Why a new report?

The arc of the new report can be traced back to a March 2025 judgement of the Allahabad High Court, in which the court ruled that acts such as grabbing a woman’s breasts and loosening her pyjama string constituted only a “preparation” to commit rape, rather than an “attempt” to rape.

The Supreme Court took cognisance of this judgement on its own, setting it aside in February. During the hearings, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant scrutinised the utility of the 2023 handbook in preventing such insensitive verdicts, calling it “too Harvard-oriented” — suggesting it was too elite or theoretical for the Indian context. He had said that issuing a handbook to “sermonise” High Court judges “serves no purpose”. The Supreme Court had directed the National Judicial Academy, where Justice Bose serves as director, to form a committee of domain experts to frame practical training guidelines.