The Jharkhand High Court has ruled that merely entering a woman's house at night and attempting to lift her clothes does not, by itself, constitute rape or an attempt to commit rape under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court made the observation while hearing an appeal filed by a convict in a 26-year-old case. It modified the trial court's conviction, holding that the act amounted to outraging a woman's modesty and using criminal force rather than an attempt to rape.
Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava observed that a specific overt act must be sufficiently close to the actual commission of rape to qualify as an attempt under the IPC. An overt act refers to a tangible physical action undertaken to advance the commission of an offence. The judgment was delivered on August 31 and made public on Monday.
The convict had challenged the order of the Ghatshila Sessions Court dated July 25, 2006, which had sentenced him to four years of rigorous imprisonment.
While modifying the conviction and sentence, the High Court noted that the appellant had already spent around eight months in custody during the trial. It held that the period already undergone would be sufficient to meet the ends of justice.
The man was arrested by Chakulia Police after an FIR was registered on December 27, 1999.
According to the victim's complaint, the appellant entered her house the previous night and allegedly tried to lift her clothes with the intention of raping her.
Police investigated the matter and subsequently filed a chargesheet accusing the appellant of attempting to commit rape.
The trial court later convicted him and sentenced him to four years in prison. The matter was subsequently challenged before the Jharkhand High Court, which modified the conviction based on its assessment of the acts attributed to the accused.
