Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has upheld the conviction of three men found guilty of gang-raping a woman, stressing that a woman's refusal must be respected unequivocally, regardless of her past sexual history or personal choices.

In a judgment delivered on May 6, a division bench comprising Justices Nitin Suryawanshi and M W Chandwani rejected the convicts’ attempts to discredit the survivor's character. “A woman who says ‘NO’ means ‘NO’. There exists no further ambiguity and there could be no presumption of consent based on a woman’s so-called immoral activities,” the court observed.

While affirming the trio’s conviction, the bench modified their sentence, reducing it from life imprisonment to 20 years in prison.

The men had argued in their appeal that the survivor was formerly in a relationship with one of them and later moved in with another man. However, in November 2014, the three forcibly entered her residence, attacked her live-in partner, and abducted her. She was then taken to an isolated location and raped.

The court was firm in its stand that past relationships cannot justify forced sexual acts. “A woman who consents to sexual activities with a man at a particular instance does not ipso facto give consent to sexual activity with the same man at all other instances. A woman’s character or morals are not related to the number of sexual partners she has had,” the judges noted.

They also emphasised that even if a woman is separated from her husband and cohabiting with another person, this does not entitle anyone to force themselves on her.

Terming rape as “the most morally and physically reprehensible crime in society”, the court said such violence constitutes a direct assault on a woman's bodily autonomy, mental well-being and privacy. “Rape cannot be treated only as a sexual crime, but it should be viewed as a crime involving aggression. It is a violation of her right to privacy,” the court stated.

The bench further upheld the convicts’ sentencing for the physical attack on the survivor’s partner.