Section 184 of BNSS, 2023 (THE BHARATIYA NAGARIK SURAKSHA SANHITA, 2023)
184. (1) Where, during the stage when an offence of committing rape or attempt to commit rape is under investigation, it is proposed to get the person of the woman with whom rape is alleged or attempted to have been committed or attempted, examined by a medical expert, such examination shall be conducted by a registered medical practitioner employed in a hospital run by the Government or a local authority and in the absence of such a practitioner, by any other registered medical practitioner, with the consent of such woman or of a person competent to give such consent on her behalf and such woman shall be sent to such registered medical practitioner within twenty-four hours from the time of receiving the information relating to the commission of such offence. (2) The registered medical practitioner, to whom such woman is sent, shall, without
delay, examine her person and prepare a report of his examination giving the following
particulars, namely:—
(i) the name and address of the woman and of the person by whom she was
brought;
(ii) the age of the woman;
(iii) the description of material taken from the person of the woman for
DNA profiling;
(iv) marks of injury, if any, on the person of the woman;
(v) general mental condition of the woman; and
(vi) other material particulars in reasonable detail.
(3) The report shall state precisely the reasons for each conclusion arrived at.
(4) The report shall specifically record that the consent of the woman or of the person
competent to give such consent on her behalf to such examination had been obtained.
(5) The exact time of commencement and completion of the examination shall also be
noted in the report.
(6) The registered medical practitioner shall, within a period of seven days forward
the report to the investigating officer who shall forward it to the Magistrate referred to in
section 193 as part of the documents referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (6) of that
section.
(7) Nothing in this section shall be construed as rendering lawful any examination
without the consent of the woman or of any person competent to give such consent on her
behalf.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section, “examination” and “registered
medical practitioner” shall have the same meanings as respectively assigned to them in
section 51.
Advocate Anoop Verma, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh
+91-9463742964
advanoopverma@gmail.com