Delhi High Court pulls up trial court for clearing men of sexual assault based on polygraph test results of victim

The Delhi High Court recently pulled up the trial court for ordering the polygraph test of a woman and then relying on the results to discharge men accused of sexually assaulting her..Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted with dismay that at the time of grant of anticipatory bail, a suggestion was made in the order to the investigating officer (IO) that the prosecutrix be made to undergo polygraph test to examine genuineness of her statement at a stage when even the chargesheet had not been filed."The observations of the learned Judge in the order dated 06.03.2019, at the stage of grant of anticipatory bail to the accused, were unwarranted and against the law laid down by the Hon’ble Apex Court regarding issuance of directions by a Court for conducting polygraph test at the stage of hearing of bail applications,” the Court observed..The Court made these observations while dealing with a plea filed by a woman against the trial court order.Justice Sharma examined the order and set it aside to the extent it discharged one of the accused for the offence under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and two others for offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (acts done in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)..In a detailed order, the Court criticised the trial court for relying on polygraph tests at the stage of framing of charge.The High Court said that if courts start relying on polygraph tests against the victim and considering them as admissible and reliable at the stage of framing of charge itself, then the criminal courts will be failing in their duty in following the established principles of criminal trial, its stages and what is to be considered and weighed at what stage.“In case the criminal courts will start discharging accused on the basis of a polygraph test at the stage of charge itself, a criminal trial - instead of testing the veracity of the statement of the victim or prosecution proving its case beyond reasonable doubt - will wriggle down to appreciation of a polygraph test and not the test of the material collected by the prosecution and the statements and testimonies of the victim,” the Court said. .Advocates Prateek Baghel and Deepak Arya appeared for the petitioner woman.Additional Public Prosecutor Naresh Kumar Chahar represented the State. .[Read Judgment]