Bhubaneswar: The State Government has issued guidelines for proper medical examination of rape victim in accordance with the new Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which came into effect across the country on yesterday.
The Health and Family Welfare Department has recently issued a notification in this direction.
As per the statutory provisions 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.
Besides, Section 53(3) of the Act provides for furnishing a copy of the medical examination report to the arrested person or the person nominated by such arrested person after his / her medical examination.
Keeping the provision in mind, the Health Department notification said,“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.”
If there will be any delay, the reasons should be mentioned in the register and in the examination report.
First, the concerned doctor or registered medical practitioner will have to take consent of the victim woman, if she is above 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. The consent should also be mentioned in the report, it said.
As per the notification, the doctor shall have to mention the exact time of commencement and completion of the examination in the report.
The doctor needs to forward the examination report to the investigating officer within a period of seven days after medical examination of the victim woman.
The department has asked the doctors to mention details of the victim in the report, which includes name and address of the woman and of the person by whom she was brought, age, description of material taken from the woman, marks of injury, mental condition and other reasonable details.
The Section 53(3) of the BNSS also provides to furnish a medical examination report to the arrested person or any person nominated by such arrested person, by the examining doctor. So, non-compliance of the above legal provisions may entail legal prosecution, warned the department.