A two Judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and Justice V. Gopala Gowda after hearing special leave petition (crl.) no. 5073/2011 has issued Guidelines on 25th April, 2014 in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India in the form of Mandamus to all the police station in charge in the entire country regarding ‘recording statement of Rape Victim’. The Directions are as follows :
- Upon receipt of information relating to the commission of offence of rape, the Investigating Officer shall make immediate steps to take the victim to any Metropolitan/preferably Judicial Magistrate for the purpose of recording her statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. A copy of the statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. should be handed over to the Investigating Officer immediately with a specific direction that the contents of such statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. should not be disclosed to any person till charge sheet/report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. is filed.
- The Investigating Officer shall as far as possible take the victim to the nearest Lady Metropolitan/preferably Lady Judicial Magistrate.
- The Investigating Officer shall record specifically the date and the time at which he learnt about the commission of the offence of rape and the date and time at which he took the victim to the Metropolitan/preferably Lady Judicial Magistrate as aforesaid.
- If there is any delay exceeding 24 hours in taking the victim to the Magistrate, the Investigating Officer should record the reasons for the same in the case diary and hand over a copy of the same to the Magistrate.
- Medical Examination of the victim: Section 164 A Cr.P.C.inserted by Act 25 of 2005 in Cr.P.C. imposes an obligation on the part of Investigating Officer to get the victim of the rape immediately medically examined. A copy of the report of such medical examination should be immediately handed over to the Magistrate who records the statement of the victim under Section 164 Cr.P.C.
Read Full Judgement : http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgs1.aspx?filename=41487
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