The Delhi high court on Tuesday expressed  dissatisfaction over the practice of conducting a virginity test on a female accused and called it sexist and unconditional. The court said that the word ,’virginity’  may not have a definite scientific and medical definition but has become a “mark of purity” of a woman.

The court said that conducting such tests is a violation of the right to dignity and is a form of inhuman treatment.

Single bench of justice Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma made the observation while hearing a plea of Sister Sephy, who was allegedly forced to undergo a “virginity test” in 2008 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with a nun’s murder case in Kerala in 1992. The petitioner alleged that the test results were leaked.

“It is declared that the virginity test conducted on a female detainee, accused under investigation, or in custody, whether judicial or police, is unconstitutional and in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution, which includes right to dignity,” Justice Sharma said.

“It will be difficult for this court to hold, being guided by the constitutional principles of fundamental rights, that a person in custody of the authorities surrenders the right to bodily integrity and submits to bodily intrusion for the prosecution to find evidence through its body.

The feeling of being demeaned by such treatment in custody by bodily invasion through conducting a virginity test also brings forth the undesirable and abhorrent notion of differentiation on the basis of gender and stereotypes,” he added.

The court also observed that the right to dignity is not suspended or waived even when a person is accused of committing an offence or arrested.