Ranchi, Sept 7: The Jharkhand High Court has held that merely entering a woman’s house at night and attempting to lift her clothes does not, by itself, constitute rape or an attempt to commit rape under the Indian Penal Code.
The court, while hearing an appeal in a 26-year-old case, modified the conviction of the appellant from an offence relating to attempted rape to outraging the modesty of a woman and using criminal force.
Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava observed that a “specific overt act sufficiently proximate to commission of rape” is required to constitute an attempt to commit rape under the IPC.
An overt act refers to a physical act undertaken to advance the commission of an intended offence.The judgment was passed on August 31 and made available on Monday.
The appellant had challenged the judgment of the Ghatshila Sessions Court, which on July 25, 2006, had sentenced him to four years of rigorous imprisonment.
According to the case records, the appellant was arrested by Chakulia police after an FIR was registered on December 27, 1999. The woman had alleged that the appellant entered her house during the previous night and attempted to lift her clothes with the intention of raping her.
Following investigation, police filed a chargesheet accusing the appellant of attempting to commit rape. The trial court subsequently convicted him and awarded a four-year prison sentence.
The High Court, while modifying the conviction and sentence, noted that the appellant had already spent around eight months in custody during the trial.
The court held that the period already undergone would be sufficient to meet the ends of justice and accordingly modified the sentence.
The ruling distinguishes between an act that may amount to outraging a woman’s modesty and the legal threshold required to establish an attempt to commit rape under the IPC.
