Delhi High Court Declares Virginity Test Conducted on Female Detainees Unconstitutional

The Delhi High Court has declared that the virginity test conducted on female detainees or accused under investigation is unconstitutional, as it violates Article 21 of the Constitution. The court was ruling on the virginity test conducted on Sister Sephy, convicted for the murder of Sister Abhaya in 1992 in Kerala. The court also gave a slew of direction to the investigating agency to ensure that the officers are sensitized in this regard. Sister Abhaya was found dead in a well at the St Pius Convent in Kottayam district of Kerala on 27 March, 1992. Local police and the crime branch of the state had at the time, said it was a case of suicide. But a year later, the CBI took over the case when Sister Banicassia, Mother Superior, and 67 other nuns from the Knanaya Catholic Church that Abhaya was part of, wrote to then chief minister K Karunakaran claiming the probe was not conducted properly. In December 2020, the special CBI court confirmed this finding and held that Sister Sephy and Father Kottoor had inflicted a fatal blow on the victim’s head, causing her death. In June last year, the high court had suspended the sentence and granted bail to the convicts.