The Jharkhand High Court (HC) recently made a ruling, according to which, barging into a woman’s house at night and trying to lift her clothes, though a criminal act, does not by itself amount to an attempt to rape. The court drew a legal distinction between an act involving criminal force aimed at outraging a woman’s modesty and conduct that progresses sufficiently towards the commission of rape to constitute an attempt. 

Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava of the HC pronounced the verdict while hearing a criminal appeal on August 31. In the judgment released on Monday, the court held that acts attributed to the appellant did not cross the legal threshold required to sustain a conviction for attempted rape. 

HC upholds lesser offence

While setting aside the attempted rape conviction, the HC upheld the man’s conviction for using criminal force against a female with the intention of outraging her modesty. 

The court found the evidence sufficient to invoke the lesser offence but insufficient to prove that the accused had reached the stage of attempting to commit rape. 

Moreover, the HC also amended the order passed by the East Singhbhum district sessions court on July 25, which had convicted the man of attempt-to-rape and sentenced him to four years of jail term. 

The HC slashed the punishment to the period he had already spent in custody (8 months), holding that the sentence was sufficient to meet the ends of justice. Consequently, the appeal was partly allowed. 

Case traces its roots to 1999

The case stems from an incident reported on the night of December 26, 1999. The accused was arrested the next day, after which a chargesheet was filed alleging that he had tried to rape the woman. 

Subsequently, the trial court convicted him of attempt-to-rape and imposed a four year jail term on him. Challenging both the sentence and the conviction, the accused then approached the Jharkhand HC.