BENGALURU - The Indian Supreme Court has ordered that doctors using a humiliating and unscientific test on sexual assault victims be held guilty of misconduct by the government.
Justice Hima Kohli and Justice DY Chandrachud made the comments while restoring a conviction and a sentence of life imprisonment for a man in Jharkhand state who had raped a 16-year-old girl in 2004 and set her on fire. The Supreme Court also directed central and state governments to review medical school curricula and remove any material prescribing the two-finger test as part of the medico-legal examination of survivors of sexual assault and rape.
The progressive 2014 protocol clearly forbids the two-finger test, determining past sexual history of the survivor, and assessing resistance of a survivor based on her physical build, among others. However, these guidelines are not legally binding. The forensic science and toxicology curriculum, for example, still contains unscientific terms such as defloration, virginity testing and types of hymen, which have no basis in medical science and perpetuate biases against women, said Ms Sangeeta Rege, director of Cehat.
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