Throughout the proceedings and thereafter, Bajaj emphasized the broader significance of her case to the women’s rights movement. However, Sections 354 and 509 of the IPC were grounded in Victorian conceptions of modesty and honour. These sections typecast women as meek and modest, with crimes arising from the violation of this notion of modesty. The disquieting consequence of framing crimes of sexual assault and harassment in this way was that they appeared to afford protection only to women that retained the quality of modesty.
