Rape is a crime, not medical diagnosis: HC

Rape is a crime and not medical diagnosis. Therefore, doctors entrusted with the responsibility of examining victims do not have the right to conclude whether an individual had been raped or not, the Madras High Court Bench here has said.

A Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and T. Mathivanan made the observation while confirming the conviction and punishment of 12-year rigorous imprisonment imposed on a youngster for having raped an eight-year-old schoolgirl in Tiruchi on October 28, 2013.

The judges expressed surprise over a woman doctor, who subjected the victim to medical examination at the request of police, having made a written statement that there was no evidence to suggest sexual intercourse just because the girl’s hymen was intact and there were no external injuries.

Authoring the judgement, Mr. Justice Mathivanan said: “To constitute the offence of rape under criminal law, it is not necessary that there should be complete penetration of the penis with the emission of semen and rupture of hymen.

“Partial penetration within the labia majora or the vulva or pudenda, with or without the emission of semen, or even an attempt at penetration is quite sufficient for the purpose of law. It is therefore quite possible to commit the offence of rape without producing any injury to the genitals or leaving any seminal stains.”

He went on to state: “We would like to point out that… the only statement that can be made by the medical officer, who examines a rape victim, is whether there is evidence of recent sexual activity or not. Whether the rape has occurred or not is a legal conclusion and not a medical one.”

Rejecting the convict’s contention that the rape case had been foisted against him by the child’s parents, the judges said such an argument was nothing but an “illogical imagination” since no parent would use their eight-year-old child to take vengeance on their enemy.

Further stressing the need for courts to decide such cases with utmost sensitivity, the Bench quoted the Supreme Court to have said: “What is lost by a rape victim is face. The victim loses value as a person…. A murderer destroys the physical body of his victim but a rapist degrades the very soul of a helpless female.”

“Doctors entrusted with the responsibility of examining victims do not have the right to conclude whether an individual had been raped or not”