Faculty Seminar | Revered ‘Routines’ in Medical Examination of Rape Accused

Abstract 

This paper is an empirical study on medical examination of the accused in rape investigation. The research was conducted between January – June 2018, in the cities of Lucknow, Dehradun, New Delhi, Pune, Patna and Bangalore; and involved interactions with police officers, medical practitioners in-charge of conducting the accused’s examination as well as forensic science experts.

These semi-structured interviews revealed information about the events preceding a decision to examine a rape accused; protocols and procedures performed during the medical examination; the institutional structures within which the examination is conducted and perspectives of those in-charge of it (primarily, the police and medical practitioners); the medical evidence obtained; and its role in the adjudication of rape.

The  work was supervised by Dr. Mrinal Satish, who was then a Professor of Law at National Law University Delhi. It was during his seminar course on ‘Contemporary Issues in Criminal Law’ that I first learnt about the role of medical evidence in rape trials.

The full paper will be made available at a later date.