Sex Workers Too Have Right to Refuse Sexual Intercourse: Supreme Court
The apex court also said the conclusion that a woman is of a “loose moral character” if she was habituated to sexual intercourse should not be made.
New Delhi, November 2: The Supreme Court, while giving its verdict on a 1997 gang-rape case on Friday, said even sex workers have a right to refuse and can seek redressal when forced by someone into sexual intercourse. With these remarks, the apex court overturned a 2009 Delhi High Court judgement and restored a lower court's verdict that awarded 10-year imprisonment to four convicts.
“Even assuming that the woman was of easy virtue, she has a right of refuse to submit herself to sexual intercourse to anyone,” a bench of Justices R Banumathi and Indira Banerjee said. The high court had set aside the lower court's order and freed the accused, saying they were falsely implicated because they had complained, accusing the woman of indulging in prostitution.
The top court said the lower court had rightly held that “even if the allegations of the accused that the woman is of immoral character are taken to be correct, the same does not give any right to the accused persons to commit rape on her against her consent”. The court also said the conclusion that a woman is of a “loose moral character” if she was habituated to sexual intercourse should not be made.
“A woman of easy virtue also could not be raped by a person for that reason," the Supreme Court bench observed. It further asked the convicts to surrender within four weeks to serve the remaining sentence. It also overturned the high court's direction to its registry to lodge complaints against three police personnel for prosecuting them for falsely implicating the four persons.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 02, 2018 11:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).