Breaking: SC quashes Gujarat HC order granting bail to Rape Accused on basis of Lie Detector Test

In a major decision, the Supreme Court today set aside a decision of the Gujarat High Court which had granted bail to a rape accused on the basis of the results of a Lie Detector Test, Brain Mapping, and Narco-Analysis..The order quashing the Gujarat High Court decision was passed by a Bench of Justices NV Ramana and Mohan M Shantanagoudar in an appeal by the grandmother of the victim..Advocates Liz Mathew and Sharukh Alam appeared for the petitioner..The facts of the case involved a child of seven years and eight months old age, who returned from school with stains on her uniform and her underwear on two consecutive days. On being asked about the stains, she revealed to her grandmother/mother that her teacher at school, the accused, had assaulted her and also several other students..The Additional Sessions Judge, Special POSCO Court had considered all evidence on record and rejected the bail application made under section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. However, the High Court, in a regular bail application, ordered that the accused be subjected to a Lie Detector Test, Brain Mapping, and Narco-Analysis..Placing reliance on the results of the aforesaid tests, the High Court granted bail to the accused on April 27, 2018..Further, it also ordered that complainant (the grandmother of the child victim), her mother, and her father must also be subjected to the same three scientific tests to further arrive at the truth..This order of High Court was assailed in Supreme Court..It was the petitioner’s contention that the Gujarat High Court order by which it granted bail itself states about the unreliability of the tests conducted on the accused and its results..The impugned order records that the Lie Detector Test is based on certain assumptions and is of ‘doubtful accuracy’. It also records that the Narco-Analysis test is invasive, as it involves the injection of a chemical in the body, which sends the person into a hypnotic trance..For this reason, confessions made in this state are not admissible in a court of law, unless a discovery was made on the basis of said confessions. It is also required that the test be undertaken with free and informed consent made before a judicial magistrate. After recording these facts, the High Court still directed the tests on the petitioner and the victim’s father and mother, the petition states..Elaborating further on the three tests which were conducted and how the Gujarat High Court took note of the same, the petition stated:.“The Impugned Order records that the results of the Lie Detector Tests were inconclusive. . The Impugned Order extracts the results of the Brain Mapping tests, which state that the probe (questions relating to the act which constituted the offence) show “activity related to remembrance of the experience triggered by the probe”. However, strangely in its conclusions the report states: “no conclusive experiential knowledge of the episode was found”. The report then relies on other circumstances to opine that the Accused is innocent. These other circumstances include the ‘geographical location’ of the room where the incident is alleged to have happened, etc. and do not rely on Brain Mapping Patterns at all.. The Narco-analysis test results also curiously rely entirely on external circumstances like the location of the room and the fact that it has windows, the lack of complaint from other girls, etc. In the extract provided in the impugned order, there is no scientific evidence at all.”.The petitioner submitted that by directing these tests on the relatives of the victim, their fundamental rights under Article 21 were violated. They were made vulnerable to visits from the police, who in turn claimed that they are only following the court’s orders..The petition also stated that the High Court, despite not being required to go into the merits of the case, played the role of an investigator and came to an erroneous conclusion..Interestingly, the petition had also drawn the attention of the Supreme Court to the fact that the order of Gujarat High Court, which reveals the victim’s identity, was made reportable and thus made available to the press, compromising her privacy..After hearing the parties today, the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat High Court order..Read the Supreme Court order below.