Woman’s sexual history is wholly immaterial while adjudicating whether the accused raped her

Supreme court today in a landmark judgement in the case of the state of jharkhand vs. Shailendra kumar rai @ pandav rai where respondent was charged with committing the offense of rape on the deceased and killing her by pouring kerosene on her and setting her on fire with a matchstick. The sessions court had concluded that the dying declaration was voluntary, credible, and did not suffer from any infirmities and held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, and convicted the respondent on the basis of the dying declaration and had sentenced the respondent to rigorous imprisonment for life for the offence punishable under section 302 of the ipc and rigorous imprisonment for 10 years for the offences. The High Court had set aside the judgment of the sessions court and had acquitted the respondent . Supreme Court today held that the so-called two finger test is based on the incorrect assumption that a sexually active woman cannot be raped . Nothing could be further from the truth a woman’s sexual history is wholly immaterial while adjudicating whether the accused raped her Supreme Court directed union government and state governments to review the curriculum in medical schools with a view to ensuring that the “two-finger test” or per vaginum examination is not prescribed as one of the procedures to be adopted while examining survivors of sexual assault.