Two Fingers Too Much: Revisiting the ‘Per Vaginal Test’ in State of Gujarat V. Rameshchandra

Abstract

State of Gujarat v. Rameshchandra Ramabhai Panchal, as rightly pointed out by Justice Pardiwala, is a case of a ‘unique acquittal’. The Trial Court acquits the accused on the charges of rape but convicts them for kidnapping under the false impression that the victim was a major. Realising the mistake at the point of sentencing, there was nothing that the trial court could have done. The case involves a recurring theme of revisiting the dignity, first as a woman and then as a rape victim. The medical examiner conducts the “two-finger test” and some remarkable observations are made in this regard. This paper deals with two aspects of the judgment; the validity and the history of two-finger test in India and the observations made about why the testimony of the victim should be believed. The court states that the victim should be believed because women face considerable consequences in the society after coming forward with a sexual assault allegation such as, inter alia, difficulty in marriage with ‘adverse publicity’ and victim blaming. The scope of this paper is to show that the judgment ultimately sides with the narrative of the women not because of the weight of the crime and trauma of the victim but because of prevalent societal conditions. This line of reasoning opens the courts to multiple false allegations and reinforces the taboo around rape victims instead of making the society more victim-friendly. The courts should rather strive to ensure sexual autonomy and dignity of a woman as an individual.