Bombay High Court upholds sessions court order in 2002 rape case

The Bombay High Court recently upheld the conviction handed over to a man for raping a minor girl, almost 18-years before, and said: "A girl child has a right to live her life with dignity. She has a right to good health, physical as well as mental, has a right to equal opportunity as a male child to develop into a matured, independent woman."

Justice Bharati Dangre, while upholding the sentence of seven years imposed on one Dada Gaikwad, said: "Heinous offences like rape of a minor girl cannot be treated with laxity, especially after the 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident."

Gaikwad had challenged the conviction handed down to him by the sessions court, by an order of February 2002. He, in his appeal, had claimed that he was in a consensual relationship with the girl, who at that time was 18 years old. The prosecution, however, claimed that the girl was only 16, and that the accused had forced himself on her.

Justice Dangre, after hearing the arguments, observed: "A heinous offence like rape committed on a minor girl cannot be looked at with laxity and merely because it was an offence involving only her body, the same cannot be brushed aside lightly."

The court, while rejecting the argument of consensual relationship, said: "In this particular case, the victim was a child of 16 years, who enjoyed the right to blossom into a woman and to step into womanhood in a dignified and graceful way and not be trampled in the manner in which she was ushered into womanhood. The girl child has a right to make a decision or choice, which includes the right to deny sexual intercourse with a person."

The court ordered the convict, who is out on bail, to surrender before the sessions court in Pune within four weeks to undergo his sentence period.