TMI Blog1983 (5) TMI 267X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dress ourselves. The learned Sessions Judge Mehsana found the appellant, a Government servant employed in the Sachivalaya at Gandhinagar, guilty of serious charges of sexual misbenaviour with two young girls (aged about 10 or 12) and convicted the appellant for the offence of rape, outraging the modesty of women, and wrongful confinement. The appeal carried to the High Court substantially failed. The High Court affirmed the order of conviction under Sec. 342 of the Indian Penal Code for wrongfully confining the girls. The High Court also sustained the order of conviction under Sec. 354 of the Indian Penal Code for outraging the modesty of the two girls. With regard to the more serious charge of rape on one of the girls, the High Court came to the conclusion that what was established by evidence was an offence of attempt to commit rape and not of rape. Accordingly the conviction under Sec. 376 was altered into one under Sec. 376 read with Sec. 511 of the Indian Penal Code. The appellant has preferred the present appeal with special leave. The incident occurred on Sunday, September 7, 1975, at about 5.30 p.m. at the house of the appellant. The evidence of P.W. 1 and P.W. 2 show ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the appellant was guilty of sexual misbehavior with P.W. 1 and P.W. 2 in the manner alleged by the prosecution and established by the evidence of P.W. 1 and P.W. 2. Their evidence has been considered to be worthy of acceptance lt is a pure. finding of fact recorded by the Sessions Court and affirmed by the High Court. Such a concurrent finding of fact cannot be reopened in an appeal by special leave unless it is established: (1) that the finding is based on no evidence or (2) that the finding is perverse, it being such as no reasonable person could have arrived at even if the evidence was taken at its face value or (3) the finding is based and built on inadmissible evidence, which evidence, if excluded from vision, would negate the prosecution case or substantially discredit or impair it or (43 some vital piece of evidence which would tilt the balance in favour of the convict has been overlooked, disregarded, or wrongly discarded. The present is not a case of such a nature. The finding of guilt recorded by the Sessions Court as affirmed by the High Court has been challenged mainly on the basis of minor discrepancies in the evidence. We do not consider it appropriate or permissible ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t go to the root of the matter and shake the basic version of the witnesses therefore cannot be annexed with undue importance. More so when the all important probabilities-factor echoes in favour of the version narrated by the witnesses. It is now time to tackle the pivotal issue as regards the need for insisting on corroboration to the testimony of the prosecutrix in sex-offences. This Court, in Rameshwar v. The State of Rajasthan,(1) has declared that corroboration is not the sine que-non for a conviction in a rape case. The utterance of the Court in Rameshwar may be replayed, across the time-gap of three decades which have whistled past, in the inimitable voice of Vivian Bose, J. who spoke for the Court The rule, which according to the cases has hardened into one of law, is not that corroboration is essential before there can be a conviction but that the necessity of corroboration, as a matter of prudence, except where the circumstances make it safe to dispense with it, must be present to the mind of the judge ....... The only rule of law is that this rule of prudence must be present to the mind of the Judge or the jury as the case may be and be understood and appreciate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on the male for real or imaginary wrongs. She may have a grudge against a particular male, or males in general, and may have the design to square the account. (4) She may have been induced to do so in consideration of economic rewards, by a person interested in placing the accused in a compromising or embarassing position, on account of personal or political vendatta. (5) She may do so to gain notoriety or publicity or to appease her own ego or to satisfy her feeling of self-importance in the context of her inferiority complex. (6) She may do so on account of jealousy. (7) She may do so to win sympathy of others. (8) She may do so upon being repulsed. By and large these factors are not relevant to India, and the Indian conditions. Without the fear of making too wide a statements or of overstating the case, it can be said that rarely will a girl or a woman in India make false allegations of sexual assault on account of any such factor as has been just enlisted. The statement is generally true in the context of the urban as also rural Society. It is also by and large true in the context of the sophisticated, not so sophisticated, and unsophisticated society. Only ve ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ry (which is not shown or believed to be self inflicted) is the best witness in the sense that he is least likely to exculpate the real offender, the evidence of a victim of a sex-offence is entitled to great weight, absence of corroboration notwithstanding. And while corroboration in the form of eye witness account of an independent witness may often be forthcoming in physical assault cases, such evidence cannot be expected in sex offences, having regard to the very nature of the offence. It would therefore be adding insult to injury to insist on corroboration drawing inspiration from the rules devised by the courts in the Western World. Obseisance to which has perhaps become a habit presumably on account of the colonial hangover. We are therefore of the opinion that if the evidence of the victim does not suffer from any basic infirmity, and the probabilities-factors does not render it unworthy of credence, as a general rule, there is no reason to insist on corroboration except from the medical evidence, where, having regard to the circumstances of the case, medical evidence can be expected to be forthcoming, subject to the following qualification: Corroboration may be insisted up ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ve been considered to be extremely distasteful to broach the subject. It is unthinkable that the parents would go to the length of inventing a story of sexual assault on their own daughter and tutor her to narrate such a version which would bring down their own social status and spoil their reputation in Society. Ordinarily no parents would do so in Indian society as at present. Under the circumstances the defence version that the father of P.W. 2 had tutored her to concoct a false version in order to falsely implicate the appellant must be unceremoniously thrown overboard. Besides, why should the parents of P.W. 1 mar the future prospects of their own daughter ? It is not alleged that P.W. 1 had any motive to falsely implicate the appellant. So also it is not even suggested why P.W. 1 should falsely implicate the appellant. From the stand point of probabilities it is not possible to countenance the suggestion that a false story has been concocted in order to falsely implicate the appellant. The medical evidence provided by P.W 6, Dr. Hemangini Desai, fully supports the finding of the High Court that there was an attempt to commit rape on P.W. 1. Under the circumstances the conclus ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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