'Two-finger test' should be banned in matrimonial dispute cases too, says Maharashtra doctor

Mumbai, Nov 04: A Maharashtra-based forensic medicine professor who has been fighting for a ban on 'two-finger'/virginity test for 12 years has hailed the Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the practice in sexual assault cases and said it should be extended to matters of marital dispute too.

Dr Indrajit Khandekar, working at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) in Sevagram near here, had been fighting since 2010 for a ban on ''virginity test'' claiming it had no scientific basis.

In 2018, he had submitted a report to the Medical Council of India (MCI) seeking removal of ''virginity test'' from the medical curriculum. Dr Khandekar, in his report, had highlighted the unscientific basis of the practice, reasons for seeking its removal from the syllabus and how it violates human rights and leads to gender discrimination.

A few days ago, the Supreme Court deprecated the "regressive" and "invasive" practice of the 'two-finger test' on rape survivors and said it had no scientific basis and instead re-victimised women who might have been sexually assaulted.

The SC issued a slew of directions to the Centre and state governments that any person who conducted the two-finger test or per vaginum examination (while examining a person alleged to have been subjected to a sexual assault) in contravention of its directions shall be guilty of misconduct.

Dr Khandekar termed the SC ruling as a landmark judgement and said virginity test is an unscientific, inhumane, derogatory and discriminatory practise that violates a woman's dignity.

''Though the SC, by this order, has banned two-finger test in relation to rape victims, various family courts and high courts have directed doctors to conduct such tests on wife to know whether she is virgin or not in cases of marital dispute such as nullification of marriage on the ground of impotency of the husband. ''When the said test is unscientific for rape victims, then how could the same test be scientific in matrimonial dispute cases? The fight will not be over until the Supreme Court restrains the lower and high courts subordinate to them from passing such orders,'' he said.