Rape claim can’t be withdrawn on the basis of gender, says HC

The court was hearing a bail plea filed by a man accused of participating in a woman’s gang rape, the case for which was registered in 2024.

The high court ruled that a woman’s gender can neither be the basis for her withdrawing any rape allegations nor should be used to question the authenticity of her accusation.

Rape claim can’t be withdrawn on the basis of gender, says HC

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma underscored that gender, which is central to the very nature of the offence under the law, cannot be simultaneously invoked as a ground to discredit her testimony or justify her retraction. The court was hearing a bail plea filed by a man accused of participating in a woman’s gang rape, the case for which was registered in 2024.

“A woman cannot be conferred the right to allege sexual assault, protected under law solely by virtue of her gender…and later be permitted to resile from her own statement on the same ground that she is a woman. The offence of rape, by its very nature, is committed upon a woman because of her gender; thus, her gender cannot be turned around as a reason to doubt the truthfulness of her complaint,” justice Sharma noted in a recent judgment.

According to the FIR, the woman had alleged that three men, including the applicant, had intoxicated and sexually assaulted her one by one. She had reiterated this allegation in her statement before the magistrate as well as during her medical examination.

However, during the bail hearing, the woman appeared in court and retracted her earlier allegations against the accused. Her counsel submitted that she has possibly been mistaken in naming the accused due to her being “a woman” and “illiterate”. The woman stated that the man was merely present at the scene but did not sexually assault her, and that she had accompanied him voluntarily.

Following the woman’s retraction and the fact that the investigation was complete, the high court granted bail to the man, who had already spent nearly seven months in judicial custody.

“When a prosecutrix (prosecutor) makes multiple consistent statements at different stages… and later completely exonerates the accused before the court, it not only weakens the prosecution case but burdens the justice delivery system and causes irreversible harm to the accused,” the court said.

Justice Sharma pointed out that such retractions undermine the integrity of the judicial process, from registration of the FIR, to investigation, to court proceedings, and often result in the accused being stigmatised without basis.

“The justice system, including the investigating agencies and courts, invests substantial time and resources based on the prosecutrix’s testimony. A reversal of that testimony at a later stage does not undo the social and legal damage suffered by the accused,” the judgment emphasised.