We are passing through exciting times!

Deprecating the regressive and invasive "two-finger test" conducted on rape survivors, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to ensure the abhorrent practice stopped forthwith. The top court has also called for reviewing curriculum in medical schools to ensure that the two-finger test is not prescribed as one of the procedures to be adopted while examining rape survivors.

Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said the pre-vaginum test, purportedly conducted to determine whether the survivor is sexually active, has no scientific basis and instead revictimises women who may have been raped. 

Expressing concerns over the continued practice despite the same being declared as violative of the survivors' right to privacy, integrity and dignity by the top court in 2013, the bench said it is patriarchal and sexist to suggest that a woman can't be believed when she states that she was raped, just because she is sexually active. 

Anyone who does the test while examining a survivor shall be guilty of misconduct.

Whether a woman is "habituated to sexual intercourse" or "habitual to sexual intercourse" is irrelevant for the purposes of determining whether the ingredients of Section 375 of the IPC are present in a particular case. The so-called 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. Further, the probative value of a woman's testimony does not depend upon her sexual history.

My take

A great decision that dumps the existent inhuman treatment of rape survivors!

Courtesy. The NIE

Tailpiece.

Got up around a quarter past 6, the chores and was ready by a 10' to 10.

Tobias, the cooking range servicing rep, came by around a half past 3 and had serviced the range.

A quiet evening thereafter.