Understanding rape adjudication in Delhi trial courts

This thesis undertakes a socio-legal analysis of rape prosecutions in Delhi. It explores the hypothesis that rape adjudication is best understood by examining the implementation of law in its postcolonial context, rather than by reference solely to its formal scope. Specifically, this thesis deploys a postcolonial feminist framework. Postcolonial feminism highlights that the scope and operation of law assumes fixed gendered, racial and other social hierarchies. It critiques these assumptions. The key question addressed in this thesis is what are the factors associated with acquittal and conviction in rape prosecutions in Delhi? The data sources used to respond to this question include judgments (n=254); observation in six courtrooms and interviews with victims, victim-support personnel, lawyers and judges (n=61). A thematic analysis is used to identify the factors influencing adjudication in four categories of cases: where the victim’s testimony supports the defendant; where her consent is vitiated by deception (‘deceptive sex’); where elopement is prosecuted as rape; and other contested cases. This thesis concludes that the criminal justice system is entrenched in its historical and socio-economic context. This context includes intersecting power structures such as those of gender, caste and class. Women’s experiences within and outside the legal system are shaped by these structures. Finally, the operation of the criminal justice system is influenced by multiple constitutive agencies with distinctive institutional cultures. This thesis is one of the only academic studies to focuss on Indian rape trials, following extensive legal reform in 2013. It is one of the first socio-legal analyses of deceptive sex cases in South Asia. It demonstrates the potential of using postcolonial feminism to analyse legal materials. It also engages with the methodological hurdles encountered by researchers in opaque, bureaucratic postcolonial environments. Its findings are relevant for scholars and practitioners interested in feminist analyses of criminal justice institutions.