MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the State government to ban medical professionals from conducting the two-finger test on victims of sexual offenses. Hearing a petition filed by a man held for sexually assaulting a minor, seeking to set aside his life imprisonment, a division bench of Justices R Subramanian and N Sathish Kumar said it is necessary to put an end to the practice. The bench said the test was still used in cases involving sexual offenses, particularly against minors.
The Supreme Court and several high courts had held the test and its interpretation violates the right of rape survivors to privacy, physical and mental integrity, and dignity, and termed it unconstitutional. The case pertains to the sexual assault of a 16-year-old. Following the two-finger test performed on the girl, the Mahila Court in Pudukottai, in 2021, found the petitioner guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment under the POCSO Act, and seven years rigorous imprisonment (RI) under Section 363 of the IPC. He was also fined Rs 1.2 lakh.
Meanwhile, the bench opined that the girl never made any attempt to escape from the attacker’s custody and concluded that she went on her own. It reduced his life sentence to 20 years of RI.
Files of all Rajiv convicts sent to Prez in Jan ’21: AG
Files relating to all seven convicts in the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking their premature release, were forwarded by the then TN Governor to the President on January 27, 2021, the Madras High Court was told on Thursday. Advocate General (AG) R Shanmugasundaram said this to the first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy when a writ petition from Nalini Sriharan, one of the seven convicts, came up for further hearing. The submission was made in response to a query raised by the bench last week. Presently, Nalini is availing a month’s parole, offered by the State. The bench adjourned the matter till April 25 after directing the AG to ascertain whether Nalini was punished for the offences under the TADA Act