Bhubaneswar: The Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) department has directed all government and private doctors as well as registered medical practitioners to conduct medical examination of rape or attempted rape victims under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 that came into effect, Monday.
In a notification to this effect, Commissioner-cum-Secretary H&FW department, Shalini Pandit said, “Under Section 184 of the BNSS, 2023, every victim woman with whom rape is alleged or attempted to have been committed or attempted shall be examined by a doctor / medical practitioner of the hospitals, public or private, whether run by the Central government, state government, local bodies or any other person with the consent of such woman or any person competent to give such consent on her behalf.”
The notification bars medical practitioners from causing any delay in the examination of rape or attempted rape victims. “Any victim of rape against whom rape is alleged or attempted to have been committed or attempted, produced before the doctor by a police officer shall be medically examined forthwith without any undue delay,” the notification states. The delay, if any and the reasons thereof shall be mentioned in the register and in the examination report. The exact time of commencement and completion of the examination shall also be noted in the report, it adds.
As per the notification, the doctor/s or registered medical practitioner/s shall forward the examination report to the Investigating Officer (IO) within seven days after the medical examination of the victim. According to the notification, the doctor/medical practitioner shall obtain the express consent of the victim if she happens to be over 12 years.
“If the age of the victim woman is under 12 years, her parents or guardian present will give consent for her medical examination,” it says. The report shall specifically record that the consent of the woman, or of the person competent to give such consent on her behalf to such examination, had been obtained.
The doctor/registered medical practitioner, to whom such woman is sent, shall, without delay, examine her person and prepare a report of examination giving the particulars. The particulars include the name and address of the victim and of the person by who she was brought, her age, description of material taken from the person of the woman, injury marks, if any, on the person of the woman, her general mental condition and other material particulars in reasonable detail, the notification adds.
Section 53(3) of the BNSS, 2023 also provides to furnish a medical examination report to the arrested person, or any person nominated by such arrested person, after the medical examination by the examining doctor. “Non-compliance of the above legal provisions may entail in legal prosecution,” the notification, promulgated through an order of the Governor, states.
PNN