Supreme Court: In a 20-year-old case relating to rape of a 6-year-old, the 3-judge bench of RF Nariman*, Navin Sinha and KM Joseph, JJ has dismissed the special leave petition filed by the convict, thereby rejecting the contention that since the petitioner has only one hand, it would be physically impossible to have committed an act of rape. The Court said that there is no such impossibility.
Senior Advocate R. Basant had argued before the Court that the case was made out against the convict only under Section 376(1) and not under Section 376(2), however, after perusing the charges framed, the Court noticed that the charge was not only under Section 376(1) IPC, but was under Section 376, which includes Section 376(2).
Further, there was a concurrent finding of the Court below of facts that the victim, who was only 6 years old, was raped by the petitioner. Apart from the victim’s testimony, there was also the testimony of her mother, who was an eye witness to the incident. The petitioner was over 18 years old and was found to be potent. His lungi was recovered and he himself absconded, having been captured after 15 days of the incident.
While dismissing the Special Leave Petition, the Court said,
“Considering that the State has not filed an appeal and that the incident has taken place 20 years ago, we dismiss the special leave petition, without going into Section 376(2) and whether a case is made out on facts for reducing the minimum punishment of 10 years.”
[Seelan v. Inspector of Police, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 1028, decided on 16.12.2020]
*Justice RF Nariman ahs penned this judgment. Read more about him here.