Case comment: Puran Chand v.

State of Himachal Pradesh

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. A.P. Singh Shobhit Mani Gopal

Associate Professor (Law) Roll-129 (5thsem)

Dr.RamManoharLohiya National Law University,Lucknow Sec-B

Introduction:

Section 114-A of Indian Evidence Act, 1872 is a result of alarming frequency of crime of rape and
acquittal of two policemen charged for raping a minor girl Mathura in a police station1. This led the
parliament to enact the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1983 to make laws related to rape more
stringent and realistic. Section 114-A of IEA obliges the court to presume the absence of consent if
the victim states so in her statement, it puts accused in the potion to induce court for the rebuttal of
this presumption, failure to do so may result in conviction. But there are three requirements of
presumption; first is proof of intercourse2 is necessary, second states that question before court is
whether it was with consent or without consent, and third is the evidence of victim which says the
absence of consent in the alleged act.
Supreme Court in its judgement of Puran Chand v. State of Himachal Pradesh3expanded the
meaning of Sec. 114-A and choose not to interpret the provision in a restrictive sense,
whichexpanded the boundaries of this particular section while relying on the sole evidence of victim.
Author in following paragraphs discusses the facts, implications of the judgement and finally the
findings under the conclusions head.

Facts of the case:

An appeal was filed in SC, before T.S. Thakur and GyanSudhaMisra against the judgement of Puran
Chand v. State of H.P.4 which convicted the accused and awarded seven years, Rs. 5000 as fine and
three months as punishment for the offence of rape and criminal intimidation under Sec. 375 and
Sec. 506 of IPC respectively by Sessions Court and upheld by H.C. Brief facts of the case are as

1
Tukaram v. State of Maharashtra, (1979) 2 SCC 143; AIR 1979 SC 185
2
(a) to (d), Section 375 IPC
3
(2014) 5 SCC 689
4
Criminal Appeal No. 52 of 2009, decided on 29-09-2009 by H.P High Court
 Case Comment: Puran Chand v. State of H.P

follows, victim girl aged 17 years took her goats for grazing nearby her village. Appellant caught her
from back while she was sitting in footpath, thereafter appellant abused her and committed rape on
her. After all this he also threatened her for dire consequences if she discloses the same with anyone.
Victim girl concealed the fact of being raped from her parents for several days, but on account of
trauma she was suffering due to the heinous incident forced her to commit suicide but was stabilised
in hospital. After regaining her consciousness, she disclosed the entire incident to her father and
brother which eventually led to the filling of FIR on 11-09-2006but incident took place on 20-08-
2006. Accused pleaded that he had been falsely implicated because of the previous enmity and
contented that victims attempt to commit suicide was due to exam fear. He also stated that court
cant rely on the sole statement of victim as the medical report is also not mentioning the same, delay
in lodging the FIR was also depicted as reason why her statement should be rejected,before Trail
court. But trail court held him guilty and on appeal in H.C judgement of Sessions Court was
accepted.

Issue:

Question before Supreme Court was whether the offence of rape could be held to have been proved
when there was no evidence regarding the offence of rape, especially when the hymen of girl was
intact. J. GyanSudhaMisra answered it as affirmative and upheld the conviction.

Analysis:

Justice G.S. Misra answers the question by stating that though medical report is the most important
evidence for the prosecutions case to be proved, but after the analysis of doctors deposition
concluded that it cannot be denied that the hymen was intact in totality. SC accepted the view of H.C
which says that as the time gap is very wide therefore medical report is of not much significance.
S.C also used circumstantial evidences while examining the question and cross-examination of
victim helped them to rely on the same. This brushed out the doubt created by the defence while
relying on the medical report. One of the contentions of defence was that delay in lodging FIR
indicates the impurity in allegations, but the same was rejected as the reason for delay was sufficient
in the eye of court.
At last judgement talks about the importance of Section 114-A of IEA, bare reading of section states
that court shall presume that consent was absent if victim says so in her statement. But Justice G.S.
Misra expanded its ambit and said, as the section adds weight and credence to the statement of victim
who was subjected to the offence of rape and it cannot be interpreted so as to infer that the version of

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 Case Comment: Puran Chand v. State of H.P

the victim should be believed as relating merely to the consent where offence of rape is proved and
the provision implies to give utmost weightage to the victims statement. Court in this way ruled that
if rape is proved then the victims sole statement may lead to conviction and also emphasized on the
fact that she attempted to commit suicide and disbelieving her would result in not meeting the ends
of justice.
Finally court upheld the HCs decision, relying on the witnesses which is supported with
circumstantial evidence and brushed aside the defence plea of improbability of the offence.
Conclusions:
Court decided the case in very cautious way and kept the fact of girl being minor in mind. Although
there were no eye witnesses or any medical evidence which would have helped the prosecutions
version of story in perusing the court to convict the accused. The reason of non-availability of
clinching evidences is very oblivious as the medical examination took place after 22 days of the
incident therefore it is highly possible of them being adulterated to the extend which made them
impossible of being traced. This is the reason why court has to look into the ambit and scope of
Sec.114-A IEA to support its reasoning. The result of cross-examination of victims statements also
projected accuracy. Judgementwas concluded by saying that even though the supported medical
evidence was weak but it gains strength from other circumstantial evidence which is intact.
This judgement surely gave a considerable weightage to the victims statement and polished the path
for convicting the accused on victims sole statement. Calculating impact of this judgement is not
justified as it has been only two years but it can be seen in few cases, i.e. Susheel Kumar v. State of
H.P5, Ram Singh v. State of H.P6, Varun Kumar v. State of H.P7, and inSubhash v. State of H.P8,
where Himachal Pradesh H.C relied on the reasoning of Puran Chand case 9 while convicting the
accused.

5
2014 SCC Online HP 5799
6
2016 SCC Online HP 281
7
2015 SCC Online HP 2968
8
2015 SCC Online HP 3634
9
Puran Chand v. State of H.P (n 4)

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