Surrender cannot be construed as consent for sexual intercourse: Kerala HC upholds conviction of 67-year-old for rape of minor

https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/surrender-cannot-be-construed-as-consent-for-sexual-intercourse-kerala-hc-upholds-conviction-rape #Rape #KeralaHighCourt #Consent

The Kerala High Court recently held that a woman’s “mere act of helpless resignation in the face of inevitable compulsion, non-resistance, or passive giving in, when volitional faculty is either clouded by fear or vitiated by duress, cannot be deemed to be ‘consent’ in law..."

“In a country like ours committed to gender equality, only sexual intercourse which are welcomed could be construed as not violative of the rights of the victim, and accepted as consensual”, Justice PB Suresh Kumar observed.

The Court was hearing an appeal by a 67-year-old man convicted of having sexually assaulted and impregnated a minor from a scheduled caste.

"The conduct on the part of the victim girl in surrendering before the accused can never be construed as consensual acts", the Court said.

"Consent (by) a woman as a defence to a rape allegation, requires voluntary participation, not only after the exercise of intelligence based on the knowledge of the significance & moral quality of the act, but after having freely exercised a choice between resistance and assent"