In a recent order, the Chhattisgarh High Court said that testimony through signs and gestures shall be treated as substantive oral evidence, while dismissing the appeal of a man convicted for raping a speech and hearing impaired woman from Balod district in 2023.
The court also observed that the trial court while convicting the man had adopted demonstrative methods, including the use of a plastic doll, to remove any possibility of misunderstanding in the survivor’s testimony.
“The defence contention that the victim, being deaf and dumb, is not a competent witness is liable to be rejected. The law recognises that a witness who is unable to speak may give evidence by signs or gestures in open Court, and such evidence is to be treated as substantive oral evidence,” noted the order delivered by a Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal on March 16.
The incident took place on July 29, 2020 when the victim was alone in her house in Balod district, where the man entered the house and raped her. The accused was convicted in the year 2023 and awarded him imprisonment for life till natural death.
Challenging his conviction in the High Court, the appellant had submitted that the trial court had not adduced “cogent, reliable and convincing evidence to establish the allegation of forcible sexual intercourse”.
