The Allahabad High Court has held that although a woman cannot commit the crime of rape, she may be charged with “gang rape” if she facilitated the act of rape with several individuals. Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav made this observation recently in light of the modified Sections 375 to 376E of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as a result of Act 13 of 2013 of the IPC, 1860.
According to Section 376-D of the IPC, “gang rape” is a separate and distinct offense. If a woman is raped by “one or more persons” acting as a group or for a common purpose, each of those individuals is regarded to have committed the offense of rape and is subject to punishment. According to the ruling by the single-judge bench, this clause incorporates the idea of joint liability, and the presence of shared purpose is what makes joint liability fundamental.
The judgment stressed the need of not interpreting the term “person” in the Section in a restrictive manner. He used Section 11 of the IPC as well as the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary to define the term, noting that “person” refers to “an individual human being” or “a man, woman, or child” and includes any “company, organization, or group of individuals,” whether or not they are incorporated.
In light of the aforementioned facts, the judge determined that a woman can be charged with gang rape if she helped another person commit a rape. The court was hearing a petition for quashing the summons order issued against one Suneeta Pandey. In accordance with Section 376-D, 212 of the IPC, the accused had been called to appear in court.
According to the FIR, the event occurred in 2015 when the complainant’s 15-year-old daughter was taken away and raped. The victim claimed that the lady was engaged in the alleged event in her statement that was recorded under Sections 161 and 164 CrPC. The accused lady was eventually called to appear in the court for gang rape even though her name was not on the charge sheet.
The defense attorney for the accused woman said that since she was a lady and no case under Section 376-D IPC was established against her, the trial court erred in summoning her to testify in a case of gang rape. He also argued that since a woman cannot be considered to have “an intention” to commit rape, she cannot be charged with gang rape and cannot be tried for it.
The lawyer cited a Supreme Court ruling from Priya Patel Vs. State of M.P. and others (2006), which stated that a woman cannot be tried for the alleged commission of the crime of gang rape, in support of his argument.
Even though Sections 375 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) state that “any woman” cannot commit rape, the court held that a woman might be charged under Section 376-D of the IPC if she assisted the other accused individuals who actually committed the gang rape. The Court accordingly rejected the woman’s plea.
