No compromise on women’s dignity: SC tells lawyer who abused judge

Rejecting an appeal by advocate Sanjay Rathore, the bench added: “They (women judges) won’t be able to function if someone like him gets away...the High Court is right.”

The judiciary cannot compromise when it comes to the safety and dignity of women judges, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday, refusing to interfere with the conviction and 18-month jail sentence of a Delhi-based lawyer who verbally abused and threatened a woman judicial officer in court.

No compromise on women’s dignity: SC tells lawyer who abused judge

“There can be no leniency in ensuring a safe workplace for women judges…Most of the judicial officers in Delhi today are women. They must feel safe at their place of work,” a bench of justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan emphasised.

Rejecting an appeal by advocate Sanjay Rathore, the bench added: “They (women judges) won’t be able to function if someone like him gets away...the High Court is right.”

The top court’s decision comes weeks after the Delhi High Court delivered a scathing verdict, describing Rathore’s conduct as “an assault on justice itself” . The trial court had originally sentenced Rathore to a total of two years’ imprisonment for using gendered abuse against a woman magistrate in 2015, but the high court reduced the term to 18 months.

Rathore had already undergone six months in jail by the time his appeal was heard in the Supreme Court. His lawyer argued that the incident was a “spur-of-the-moment” outburst and that further incarceration would be harsh. But the top court remained unmoved.

“Your sentence has already been reduced to 18 months. We can’t bring it down. Your matter was duly dealt with by the high court and a strong judgment was issued. We have to ensure the safety of women judicial officers,” the bench said during the hearing.

The court also took note of the testimony given under oath by the woman magistrate, who corroborated the charges. “Look at the kind of language you have used. How will judges work if we entertain your petition?” the bench asked.

In its brief order, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and granted Rathore two weeks to surrender.

The case dates back to October 2015, when Rathore, aggrieved by an adjournment in his case that was passed in his absence, verbally abused a woman magistrate in Karkardooma court, including using gender-specific slurs. The incident prompted the judicial officer to lodge an FIR at Farsh Bazar police station.

In 2023, a trial court found Rathore guilty under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code -- 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 189 (threat of injury to a public servant), and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty) -- and sentenced him to two years in jail. The high court, while upholding the conviction in May 2025, modified the sentence to 18 months.

In her May 26 judgment, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the high court minced no words in rejecting Rathore’s plea for leniency. She observed that “the act of outraging the modesty of a judicial officer while she was presiding over court proceedings… attacks the very foundation of judicial decorum and institutional integrity.”

Justice Sharma emphasised that Rathore, being an officer of the court, was expected to uphold its dignity, not undermine it. “This is not merely a case of individual misbehaviour, but a case where injustice was done to justice itself where a judge… became the target of personal attack while discharging her official duties.”

The judgment went on to highlight the larger systemic issue: “Any act that seeks to threaten or intimidate a judge, especially through gender-specific abuse, is an assault on justice itself and must be met with firm accountability. To trivialise such conduct under the garb of emotional outburst or momentary lapse is to reflect a patriarchal mindset — one that struggles to respect women in authority and seeks to normalise the unacceptable. This cannot be permitted. Not in law. Not in court.”

Calling the woman magistrate’s experience a reflection of “a mindset where even women in empowered roles are not seen as immune from humiliation or indignity,” the high court warned that no judicial officer, especially women at the district level who form the “backbone of our justice delivery system,” should ever feel unsupported or unsafe.

“If a woman holding judicial office is made to feel that her authority is conditional on the civility or restraint of others, the very foundation of judicial independence would get shaken,” Justice Sharma wrote.