‘Troubling mindset’: Delhi HC rejects claim that girls wearing jeans corrupts boys
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court has said that what a girl wears is purely her personal choice. The court added that claiming a girl wearing jeans might “corrupt young boys” shows a deeply troubling mindset.
The court said this while finding a man guilty of sexually harassing a girl in 2013, reversing a lower court’s decision that had earlier let him go.
The victim complained that her neighbour stalked her, passed sexual comments, and touched her inappropriately. A trial court cleared the man in 2014 but the State challenged that decision in the High Court.
While the High Court found the man guilty of sexual harassment under the Indian Penal Code, it said the POCSO (child protection) law could not be used because prosecutors could not prove the girl was under 18 at the time.
Court slams questions about her clothes
During the trial, the man’s lawyer questioned the girl about her “western” clothes and whether her neighbours disliked what she wore.
Setting the record straight, Justice Chandrasekharan Sudha said, “What a girl or woman chooses to wear is a matter of her personal choice. Neither her neighbours, nor society, nor the accused, nor counsel appearing in a court of law has any right to dictate her clothing. It is simply none of their concern. The suggestion that a woman wearing jeans may ‘corrupt young boys’ reflects a deeply troubling and unacceptable mindset.”
The court added, “The answer does not lie in controlling the clothes of girls and women. Parents and society must instead teach their children to control their conduct, respect personal boundaries and treat every human with dignity, whether at home or outside.”
Clothing does not justify harassment
Justice Sudha pointed out that the cross-examination was entirely irrelevant and improper, adding that the trial judge should have stopped such questions from the start. The court ruled that a woman’s attire or personal choices do not lower her dignity or justify unlawful behavior against her.
Emphasising that “even a woman of easy virtue” is entitled to protect her person, the court held that local demographics and the victim’s clothes had zero connection to the harassment allegations. Even if her attire was disapproved of by neighbours or the accused, that was no valid reason to doubt her testimony.
Finding that the core charges were firmly established by the evidence, the high court convicted the accused under Section 354A(1)(i) of the IPC while dropping the POCSO charge due to lack of age proof.
Curated by- Ramansh Dhadwal