Aryan Gupta, Kirit P. Mehta School of Law, NMIMS
ABSTRACT
Rape is a horrible crime that occurs all over the world, showing misogyny in a culture where men and women have unequal power distribution. It has the potential to be both serious and contentious. Rape is the one crime intimately tied to conflict and sexual politics. A victim's suffering and psychological damage hinders her life goals, which is heinous. While legislators have introduced a progressive set of laws to tackle this awful criminal behaviour. However, the crime wave is spreading across the country. The inadequacy of present rape laws is one of the key causes of this. Apart from that, there are a few other factors to blame for the current scenario. One example is the filing of false rape cases by fictitious victims. In our society, charges as serious as rape cause the accused to be treated as guilty before their trial even begins, and in many cases, they carry this burden forward in their lives even if they are proven innocent, in the form of mental health issues and a history of being charged for a heinous crime. While the judicial system holds the burden of making decisions that are just and efficient enough to encourage victims to come up, it also bears the burden of thoroughly investigating an accusation before reaching a verdict. This paper will look at four aspects, first whether rape laws are sufficient to protect legitimate victims, second impact of such false accusations, third how such abuse by imposters can be punished and how media plays a role in such cases. Examining them, the article will give specific recommendations based on facts as to how these laws might be rendered sufficient in dealing with the issues.
Keywords: False rape allegations, Legislation, Feminism, Accused, Rape
