Bench :Koshal, A.D.
- Appellant:Tuka Ram & Anr.
- Respondent: State of Maharashtra
Citation:1979 AIR 185, 1979 SCR (1) 810
Issue:
Whether the Apex Court should overturn the Bombay HC’s order to convict the accused?
Facts:
- A man by the name of Gama had reported in the police station that his sister “Mathura” (an orphaned, tribal woman) was kidnapped by her husband and three other men.
- The police eventually found her and brought her to the station where they took everyone’s statement. At around 10:30 they asked everyone to leave but asked Mathura to go in the police station.
- Thereafter, both one defendant took her to thee washroom and raped her.
- The second defendant fondled her private parts and then tried raping her. But was extremely intoxicated and hence didn’t succeed.
- The District Judge acquitted the two men on the grounds that since Mathura was
“Habitual to sex” and might have invited to satisfy her sexual needs and thus her consent was voluntary. - The Bombay overturned this decision on the grounds of “passive submission” by Mathura. But the court also stated that Mathura didn’t know these men and hence that is why, “it is extremely unlikely that she’d approach them to satisfy her sexual needs.”
- The defendants appealed to the Apex Court to reverse the Bombay HC judgement.
Respondent’s contentions:
- The Respondents had argued that since it had been medically proven that Mathura was a young girl of age 14-16, any form of sexual activity would amount to rape, whether it is consensual or not.
- “Passive Submission”
Appellant’s contentions:
- She did not leave and stayed back after everyone left.
- Her testimonies are riddled with falsehood and improbabilities.
- She was habituated to sexual activities.
- The fact that semen was found neither on the public hair nor on the vaginal smears taken from her person.
- No direct evidence being available about the nature of the consent of the girl to the alleged act of sexual intercourse, the same had to be inferred from the available circumstances and that from those circumstances it could not be deduced that the girl had been subjected to or was under any fear or compulsion such as would justify an inference of any "passive submission".
Final Decision:
Supreme Court overturned HC’s decision of convicting the men on the grounds that the HC had erred in accepting the argument of “passive submission” as there was no fear or apparent threat. Supreme Court further added that since “no marks of injury” were found on Mathura’s body there was “no resistance” on her part and since she did not “raise an alarm” for help she “consented to sex.”The Apex Court acquitted both the accused stating that this alleged intercourse was a “peaceful affair”.
