‘Mental age’ of 8 or 9 years cannot automatically mean adult woman lacks sexual capacity: Gauhati HC acquits rape convict

Posted on August 21, 2026
By The Times of India
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In brief

In a significant judicial ruling, the Gauhati High Court overturned a rape conviction, determining that intellectual disability alone does not establish inability to consent. The court emphasized that prosecutors must provide concrete psychological evidence demonstrating cognitive incapacity regarding sexual comprehension. Additionally, the judgment highlighted critical procedural failures in handling vulnerable victim statements, ruling that testimonies obtained without proper legal safeguards cannot serve as reliable evidence in sexual assault cases involving individuals with mental disabilities.

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‘Mental age’ of 8 or 9 years cannot automatically mean adult woman lacks sexual capacity: Gauhati HC acquits rape convict

The Gauhati High Court has acquitted a man convicted of raping a 24-year-old woman with intellectual disability, holding that the prosecution failed to produce specific expert evidence showing that her condition rendered her incapable of understanding the nature of sexual intercourse or giving valid consent. The Court also found that the victim's statement under Section 164 CrPC could not be treated as her examination-in-chief because mandatory safeguards applicable to a mentally disabled victim had not been followed.