By Taarini Manchanda
The High Court of Haryana and Punjab recently granted bail to the three former students of a law university in Haryana. The three were convicted of gangraping and blackmailing a student of the same university. The courts observed that the victim’s statement offered “an alternate conclusion of adventure stemming from promiscuous attitude and voyeuristic mind”.
In March 2015, a case was filed by an American scholar against Mahmood Farooqui, the director and co-writer of the movie Peepli Live, for rape.The court last week acquitted him saying that he was entitled to the benefit of the doubt as the testimony of the victim was not reliable (Source: PTI) and the Delhi High Court declared “Instances of woman behaviour are not unknown that a feeble no may mean a yes.”
The Indian Penal Code explains “consent” as “unequivocal voluntary agreement” to participate in a sexual act. The woman’s mere absence of physical resistance towards any sort of sexual act cannot be deemed as a consent. Furthermore, the IPC attempts to differentiate between the kinds of consent. Like, “when a party is known to each other, are persons of letters and are intellectually/academically proficient, and if there are have been physical contacts in the past. In such cases, it is very hard to decipher whether little resistance or a feeble ‘no’, was actually a denial of the consent”. Meaning that if the people involved know each other and have been previously involved, it is very hard to differentiate whether the woman has given her consent or has not.
Since most of the rapes are committed by someone known by the victim, it increases the rates of the accused to get away with their actions. All these contribute to one simple idea that is, according to the court, when a woman says “no”, it does not necessarily mean that she is denying any form of sexual interaction.
THE VIEW With these verdicts, the courts are making it harder for rape victims to fight their battles and receive justice. More shockingly, the courts have various observations on what qualifies as a consent. The courts, with their actions are clearly putting forth the idea that when the victim says “no”, the accused still has the permission to go on. The courts are given abundant power. They have the power to change someone’s life. If the courts themselves, do not use their power for the development and betterment of the community then the lives of many innocent people will be lost.
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