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| India-Pakistan |
| No licence to rape woman who appears to be promiscuous: SC |
| 2008-08-29 |
| A woman who appears to be promiscuous in her sexual behaviour cannot be forced into a sexual relationship and nobody has a "licence" to rape her, the Supreme Court has said. "Even if the victim in a given case has been promiscuous in her sexual behaviour earlier, she has a right to refuse to submit herself to sexual intercourse to anyone and everyone because she is not a vulnerable object or prey for being sexually assaulted by anyone and everyone," the apex court observed. Though the trial court had convicted the accused Munshi and another person for the rape of a 17-year old woman, the High Court acquitted the accused on the ground that the victim was promiscuous in her sexual behaviour and had already lost her virginity. Aggrieved by the acquittal, Uttar Pradesh Government filed the SLP in the apex court. "Even if it is hypothetically accepted that the victim had lost her virginity earlier, it did not and cannot in law give licence to any person to rape her," a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma passed the observation while quashing the acquittal order passed by the Allahabad High Court in favour of a rape accused. Upholding the appeal, the apex court on perusal of the medical and other evidence said that even assuming that the victim was previously accustomed to sexual intercourse, the same cannot be a ground for disbelieving her testimony or convicting the accused. "On the contrary, the question which was required to be adjudicated was did the accused commit rape on the victim on the occasion complained of." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Gee, they just broke into the 11th century. Keep up the good work, you may evolve yet. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-29 15:42 |
| #1 Spoil anyone's plans for a fun vacation in India? No? I didn't think so. |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-08-29 09:25 |