The Burden of Intelligibility: Disabled Women’s Testimony in Rape Trials

Abstract

What is the evidentiary value accorded to a woman’s testimony in a rape trial, when she is disabled? How is her testimony—conveyed non-verbally and made accessible to the judges through an interpreter—processed by a legal culture that values descriptive precision and intelligibility? How does ‘intelligibility’ itself act as a sieve through which the testimony of the disabled prosecutrix is passed to determine if the allegation of rape is proved beyond reasonable doubt? By examining judicial decisions of Indian courts in cases of rape of disabled women, this article attempts to explore these questions and shows how the testimony of the disabled prosecutrix is devalued and disregarded through a combination of evidentiary, doctrinal and ideological practices inscribed in law.