New Delhi: Terming his predecessor D.Y. Chandrachud’s ‘Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes’ as “too technical” and “Harvard-oriented” for any assistance to rape survivors and commoners, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Tuesday (February 11) said that he will constitute a panel to “fine tune” it, The Times of India reported.The remarks on the Harvard-educated former CJI’s 2023 initiative to create the glossary of “gender-unjust terms”, to sensitise and assist judges and lawyers, were made during the proceedings in a suo motu case taking cognisance of insensitivity of an Allahabad high court judgment that had ruled “grabbing the breasts” and “loosening the pyjama string” did not amount to attempt to rape.A bench of CJI Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and N.V. Anjaria was hearing the case. They opined that the 30-page handbook gave forensic meanings to different aspects of sexual assault, which may not be understood by the rape survivor, her relatives, or commoners.“It is too Harvard-oriented,” CJI Kant said.The bench then directed the National Judicial Academy (NJA) in Bhopal to constitute a panel comprising domain experts, academicians and lawyers to revisit the issue, frame new guidelines and submit a report to the Supreme Court. “We will take assistance of lawyers, including amicus curiae Shobha Gupta and senior advocate H.S. Phoolka, to fine-tune it,” the judges said, adding that after it is finalised, NJA should make it the study material for high court judges, who could be called in batches and trained about the sensitivities required while dealing with sexual assault cases.“It serves no purpose to sermonise the HC judges sitting in the Supreme Court. They must get practical training at NJA,” the CJI said.Meanwhile, the bench set aside the Allahabad high court’s decision from March 2025, which had differentiated between the preparation for a crime and the attempt to commit the crime, and asked the trial court to proceed against the two accused.On March 26 last year, the Supreme Court under then CJI Chandrachud had taken suo motu cognisance of the judgment and stayed it, while expressing its anguish at the insensitivity shown by the high court judge.Released on August 16, the handbook contains a long list of phrases and words which perpetuate a stereotype and suggests alternative language for them. For instance, in place of “adulteress,” it suggests “woman who has engaged in sexual relations outside of marriage”, whereas instead of an “affair”, the term used should be “relationship outside of marriage”.The handbook also suggests just using the word “woman” for a significant number of pejorative phrases and words like “career woman,” “chaste woman”, “woman of easy virtue”, “harlot,” “whore,” “slut,” “seductress,” and “woman of loose morals.”