FM8.1-16,FM14.12-14 | Sexual Offences & Reproductive Forensics — Glossary

The minimum legal age for valid consent to sexual intercourse in India, currently 18 years; sexual activity with any person under 18 constitutes rape under BNS regardless of apparent willingness.

POCSO Section 5: penetrative sexual assault committed by a person in a position of trust or authority (doctor, teacher, relative, custodian), attracting enhanced punishment of rigorous imprisonment not less than 20 years.

Introduction of air into the uterine venous sinuses during syringe/fluid injection; air travels to the right heart, causing acute right heart failure and death; diagnosed at autopsy by finding frothy blood in the right ventricle on incising under water.

Surrogacy conducted by a close relative of the intending couple without payment (beyond medical expenses and insurance); the only form of surrogacy permitted under the Surrogacy Act 2021.

The enforcement body at national/state/district level under the PC&PNDT Act; at district level typically the Chief Medical Officer; has power to inspect, seal equipment, cancel registration, and file complaints.

Indian legislation regulating ART clinics and banks: mandates registration, sets gamete donor eligibility criteria, regulates embryo storage, prohibits sex-selective ART and commercial gamete trading.

Complete absence of spermatozoa in ejaculate; confirmed on two separate analyses; classified as obstructive (normal spermatogenesis, duct blockage) or non-obstructive (spermatogenesis failure).

The ossification centre of the distal femoral epiphysis; appears at approximately 36 weeks gestation; its presence at post-mortem indicates a near-term viable foetus; the most forensically important single ossification centre.

Sexual acts with animals; constitutes an offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and relevant BNS provisions; medico-legal examination may involve both human and veterinary assessment.

The procedural criminal law enacted in 2023 replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973; Sections 52, 184, and 397 govern medical duties in sexual offence cases.

The criminal code enacted in 2023 replacing the Indian Penal Code 1860, in force from 1 July 2024; Section 63 defines rape.

The historical phrase from IPC Section 377; interpreted by courts to include homosexual intercourse, anal intercourse, and other non-vaginal acts; partially decriminalised for consenting adults by Navtej Johar 2018.

The unbroken, documented sequence of possession of evidence from collection to presentation in court; any gap renders the evidence inadmissible.

A statutory body under the Juvenile Justice Act to which child sexual abuse victims must be produced within 24 hours of a report; coordinates medical, legal, and social care.

The convention of describing injury location on the hymen, anus, or perineum using a clockface (12 o'clock = anterior, 6 o'clock = posterior) for standardised, reproducible documentation.

A surrogacy arrangement in which the surrogate receives financial payment beyond medical expenses; prohibited outright under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021.

Termination of pregnancy performed in violation of the MTP Act — by an unqualified person, outside a registered facility, beyond the legal gestational limit without authorisation, or without consent; a criminal offence under BNS.

A blood or buccal swab taken from survivor or accused to provide a known DNA profile for comparison with unknown biological material recovered from the crime scene or the other party.

A standardised report filed under PWDVA by the Protection Officer or the victim; documents the violence, the parties involved, and the remedies sought; initiates the civil relief process.

The absolute obligation of any government hospital doctor to examine and provide initial medical care to a sexual assault survivor; cannot be delayed by absence of FIR, police presence, or specialist availability.

A statement made by a person who believes they are dying, about the circumstances of their condition; admissible as evidence in Indian law; in criminal abortion cases, the woman's account of who performed the abortion should be recorded as a dying declaration if she is at risk of death.

As defined in PWDVA: deprivation of financial resources, destruction of property, restriction on employment, and disposal of assets the woman is entitled to; an oft-overlooked category of domestic violence.

DSM-5 disorder characterised by sexual arousal from exposing genitals to unsuspecting strangers; a criminal offence in India; high recidivism.

A hymenal variant with irregular, fringe-like projections at the margin; may appear 'absent' or 'torn' to an inexperienced examiner but is a normal anatomical variant with no sexual history significance.

Material scraped from under fingernails; may contain DNA of the other party from scratching during assault; collected with a wooden stick and placed in labelled paper folds.

The legal principle that medical examination and treatment of a sexual assault survivor cannot be conditioned on prior filing of a First Information Report; affirmed by Supreme Court and embedded in BNSS Section 184.

The gestational age at which a foetus is considered capable of survival outside the uterus; approximately 28 weeks or 1 kg body weight in the Indian legal context; relevant to the distinction between abortion/still birth and infanticide/neonatal death.

The killing of a foetus in the uterus; may result from external trauma or deliberate intervention; charged as grievous hurt or culpable homicide depending on gestational age and intent.

Mandatory prescribed form under PC&PNDT Act; must be completed for every antenatal ultrasound; records patient identity, indication, gestational age, and findings; non-completion is a criminal offence independent of any sex disclosure.

Female sexual interest/arousal disorder (DSM-5); absence or marked reduction in sexual interest/arousal causing personal distress; the contemporary replacement for the older term 'frigidity.'

DSM-5 disorder characterised by sexual arousal from touching or rubbing against non-consenting persons; associated with groping offences in crowded spaces.

Assessment of live birth by demonstrating air in the stomach and intestines (from swallowing after breathing); positive only after several hours of neonatal survival; complements the hydrostatic (pulmonary) test.

Surrogacy in which the surrogate carries an embryo formed from gametes not her own; she has no genetic link to the child; the only form of surrogacy permitted under the Surrogacy Act 2021.

A rule for estimating foetal crown-heel length from gestational age: for months 1-5, CHL = (lunar month)²; for months 5-10, CHL = lunar month × 5. Useful in foetal age estimation at post-mortem.

A phrase previously used in Indian medico-legal practice to describe apparent prior sexual experience based on hymenal/vaginal findings; now explicitly condemned as having no scientific basis and excluded from all legitimate examination reports.

Post-mortem test for live birth: the lungs are placed in water; they float if air entered (baby breathed) and sink if airless (stillbirth); NOT conclusive — false positives from putrefaction, artificial inflation, and intrauterine respiration.

A mucous membrane fold at the vaginal introitus; highly variable in form (annular, fimbriated, crescentic, imperforate); fresh tears are described by clock-face position.

Any of the numerous normal forms the hymen may take — annular, fimbriated, crescentic, septate, microperforate, imperforate; these variants have no relationship to sexual history.

Deficiency of testicular hormone production (testosterone); primary = testicular failure; secondary = hypothalamic-pituitary failure; causes reduced libido, erectile dysfunction, and azoospermia.

Inability to achieve or maintain a penile erection sufficient for penetrative sexual intercourse; may be organic or psychogenic; relevant in matrimonial non-consummation and as a claimed defence in rape cases.

Non-consensual sexual touching short of penetration, with sexual intent; may leave no physical findings; documented primarily through history and any incidental injuries.

Statutory presumption of legitimacy: a child born during a valid marriage or within 280 days of its dissolution is presumed legitimate; rebuttable only by proof of impossibility of access between the parties.

The killing of a live-born infant; charged under BNS murder/culpable homicide provisions in India; requires establishing that the infant was born alive before any criminal inquiry proceeds.

In the BNSS framework, examination of the rape survivor requires her consent (or guardian consent if minor); absence of consent does not prevent treatment but alters documentation requirements.

A voluntary, freely given, informed agreement to participate in a specific sexual act with a specific person at a specific time; must involve capacity, voluntariness, and information.

Placement of washed spermatozoa directly into the uterine cavity by catheter; the most common form of artificial insemination; used for mild male factor or unexplained infertility.

Laboratory fertilisation of retrieved oocytes with prepared spermatozoa, followed by embryo culture and uterine transfer; governed by the ART Regulation Act 2021.

2018 Supreme Court judgment striking down IPC Section 497 (adultery) as unconstitutional; adultery is no longer a criminal offence in India.

The legal status of a child as born within a valid marriage or within 280 days of its dissolution; presumed under Indian Evidence Act Section 112; protects the child's inheritance and succession rights.

Supreme Court of India (2013) judgment declaring the two-finger test unconstitutional and directing its immediate cessation; affirmed that examination must follow MoHFW guidelines.

Supine with hips and knees flexed and legs supported in stirrups; the standard position for female genital examination.

Post-partum uterine discharge: lochia rubra (red-brown, days 1-4), lochia serosa (pale, days 4-9), lochia alba (white/yellow, weeks 2-6); its presence is a reliable sign of recent delivery.

Autolytic changes in a foetus that dies in utero — skin slippage, discolouration, and Spalding's sign (overlapping skull bones); occurs exclusively in utero and proves intrauterine death (therefore stillbirth).

A legal obligation to inform the police or child welfare authority whenever knowledge or reasonable suspicion of sexual abuse exists; failure is a criminal offence under POCSO Section 19.

The legal standard for the defence of insanity in criminal proceedings: the accused, by reason of unsoundness of mind, did not know the nature or quality of the act, or did not know it was wrong; adopted in Indian law; rarely met by paraphilic disorders.

A multidisciplinary committee constituted at every state-level hospital; required to authorise termination beyond 24 weeks for substantial foetal abnormalities; no upper gestational limit for Board-approved terminations on this ground.

An antiprogestogen (progesterone receptor antagonist); used with misoprostol for medical termination of pregnancy up to 9-10 weeks; blocks progesterone-mediated maintenance of the decidua, initiating pregnancy loss.

A synthetic prostaglandin E1 analogue; causes uterine contractions and cervical ripening; used with mifepristone for early medical abortion and alone or in combination for mid-trimester termination.

The most common tubal ligation method: the tube is elevated into a loop, a suture ligates the base, and the loop is excised; performed via minilaparotomy or laparoscopy.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines for examination of rape/sexual assault survivors; the authoritative standard for examination procedure in India; explicitly exclude virginity testing.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines for examination of rape survivors (2014, reaffirmed 2022); the standard against which examination quality is judged in Indian courts.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act 2021; extends gestational limit to 24 weeks for specific survivor categories (rape, incest, minors, differently abled, marital status change); Medical Board required beyond 24 weeks for substantial foetal abnormalities.

Fabricated or Induced Illness; a form of child abuse where a caregiver induces or fabricates illness in a child for medical attention; methods include smothering, toxin administration; symptoms resolve away from caregiver; constitutes child cruelty under BNS and POCSO.

National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014) — Supreme Court judgment recognising transgender persons as a 'third gender' with constitutional rights to equality and non-discrimination.

2018 Supreme Court Constitution Bench judgment that partially struck down IPC Section 377, decriminalising consensual sexual conduct between competent adults regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Sexual arousal from corpses; a paraphilic disorder; constitutes a criminal offence (desecration of a corpse) under Indian law.

The preferred vasectomy technique in India's National Family Planning Programme; puncture technique rather than incision; lower complication rate than conventional vasectomy.

Spontaneous penile erections occurring during REM sleep; preserved in psychogenic impotence, absent or reduced in organic impotence; assessed by snap gauge or Rigiscan testing; key diagnostic discriminator.

The requirement that the examining doctor records findings without bias toward either survivor or accused; the report must read identically regardless of who the subjects are.

An intense, persistent sexual interest in objects, situations, or individuals outside conventional adult consensual sexuality; a variant that, without distress or harm to others, is not a psychiatric disorder.

A paraphilia that causes clinically significant personal distress/impairment OR involves acting on urges with non-consenting persons, minors, or animals; meets DSM-5/ICD-11 diagnostic criteria.

The cervical external os in a woman who has delivered vaginally; appears as a wide, transverse slit, in contrast to the small, round nulliparous os; a persistent sign of prior vaginal delivery.

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act; regulates all facilities performing prenatal diagnostics; prohibits sex determination and disclosure; amended 2002 to include pre-conception techniques.

DSM-5 disorder characterised by sexual attraction primarily to prepubescent children (≤13 years); individual must be ≥16 and ≥5 years older than the subject; any contact offence prosecuted under POCSO.

As defined in POCSO Section 3: penile penetration of any orifice, object insertion, or use of any body part to penetrate, when done to a child under 18.

Fibrous plaque formation in the tunica albuginea causing penile curvature, pain, and erectile dysfunction; an organic structural cause of impotence.

The area of the uterine wall where the placenta was implanted; appears roughened, raised, and haemorrhagic post-delivery; involutes over 4-6 weeks; a useful post-mortem indicator of recent delivery.

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act; a gender-neutral statute protecting children under 18 from all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation; creates mandatory reporting duty for all persons.

Findings diagnostic of intrauterine pregnancy: foetal heart sounds on auscultation, foetal movements felt by the examiner, ultrasonographic visualisation with cardiac activity.

A swab from the posterior vaginal fornix (the most dependent part of the vaginal vault); the most sensitive site for spermatozoa recovery after vaginal assault.

Labour in which delivery is completed within 3 hours of onset of uterine contractions; more common in multiparous women; forensically relevant as an explanation for unattended delivery.

Persistent ejaculation within approximately 1 minute of vaginal penetration (or before penetration), causing distress; forensically significant because external seminal deposition may occur without intravaginal penetration.

Subjective symptoms and early physical changes suggesting pregnancy but not diagnostic: amenorrhoea, morning sickness, breast tenderness, Chadwick's sign, urinary frequency.

The standardised examination and report document prescribed by MoHFW guidelines; must be completed in full, with findings (not conclusions), and submitted to the investigating officer within 24 hours.

Objective findings strongly suggesting pregnancy but with other possible explanations: uterine enlargement, Hegar's sign, Goodell's sign, positive hCG test, ballottement.

Civil law providing comprehensive protection to women from all forms of domestic violence (physical, sexual, emotional, economic); primary remedies are civil protection orders, residence orders, and monetary relief.

An officer appointed under PWDVA in every district; coordinates assistance to victims, files Domestic Incident Reports, and facilitates access to remedies; the primary referral target for doctors encountering domestic violence.

Foreign pubic hair recovered from the accused or survivor by combing the pubic hair; may provide DNA linking accused and survivor.

A doctor registered with a State Medical Council under the NMC Act 2020; the only category of professional empowered to conduct medico-legal examinations under BNSS.

Abortion complicated by uterine infection; characterised by fever, uterine tenderness, purulent discharge; may progress to septicaemia and multi-organ failure; a common cause of maternal mortality from criminal abortion.

Termination of pregnancy specifically because of foetal sex; prohibited under both the MTP Act (no indication of sex selection) and the PC&PNDT Act (no sex determination leading to selection).

DSM-5 disorder characterised by sexual arousal from inflicting pain or humiliation; when acted on with non-consenting persons, represents the most dangerous category of paraphilic offending.

The international gold standard method for forensic paternity determination; compares repeated sequences at multiple genomic loci to calculate a paternity index; inclusion requires ≥99.9% probability, exclusion is definitive at 0%.

Sudden, unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant under 1 year; diagnosis of exclusion requiring full autopsy, history review, and death-scene investigation; non-specific post-mortem findings (thymic petechiae, pulmonary congestion).

Non-consensual anal penetration; now prosecuted under BNS Section 63's expanded act definition; requires specific forensic examination of the anorectum.

Overlapping of foetal skull bones seen on X-ray; indicates intrauterine death (the skull collapses as soft tissues regress); a specific radiological marker of antepartum foetal death.

Inability to produce a pregnancy; in males typically due to azoospermia or severe oligospermia; independent of erectile function; relevant in legitimacy and succession disputes.

Birth of a foetus showing no signs of life; may be antepartum or intrapartum; maceration indicates intrauterine death before labour; registration mandatory for foetuses ≥28 weeks.

An undercover enforcement operation in which a woman poses as a patient seeking sex determination; evidence from such operations is admissible under the PC&PNDT Act; used effectively in prosecution of sex-selective diagnostic providers.

Stretch marks appearing on the abdomen, breasts, and thighs during pregnancy; initially pink/red, fading to silvery-white; old striae are a sign of remote pregnancy.

Fertilisation of two ova in the same cycle by sperm from different sexual encounters, potentially by different men; may result in fraternal twins with different biological fathers; rare but documented.

The hypothetical conception of a second embryo in an already pregnant uterus; considered physiologically impossible in humans due to hormonal suppression of ovulation and decidual implantation block after established pregnancy.

Indian legislation regulating surrogacy arrangements: prohibits commercial surrogacy outright; permits only altruistic surrogacy by a close relative (married, own child, aged 25-35) of the intending couple.

An examination that simultaneously serves the clinical care needs of the survivor and preserves forensic evidence for the legal investigation; the dual mandate of rape examination.

A parent, guardian, or person trusted by the child in whose presence POCSO Section 27 requires a medical examination to be conducted; ensures child does not feel unduly intimidated.

Surgical interruption of the fallopian tubes for female sterilisation; methods include modified Pomeroy (most common), Filshie clips, and laparoscopic electrocautery; lifetime failure rate ~0.4-0.8%.

The now-prohibited practice of inserting one or two fingers into the vagina to assess 'laxity' as a purported indicator of prior sexual activity; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (Lillu 2013) and scientifically invalid.

Manual vacuum aspiration; suction-based evacuation of uterine contents; safe for termination up to 12-14 weeks; performed under local or general anaesthesia.

Involuntary spasm of the levator ani and vaginal muscles preventing or making penetration painful; a cause of non-consummation; may be primary (lifelong) or secondary (acquired after previous normal function).

Surgical division of the vas deferens for male sterilisation; No-Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV) is the preferred National Programme technique; effective only after azoospermia confirmed at 12 weeks.

Apparent agreement that is legally invalid due to the presence of a vitiating factor (threat, deception, intoxication, incapacity, age under 18) — the seven circumstances under BNS Section 63.

DSM-5 paraphilic disorder characterised by sexual arousal from observing non-consenting persons undressing or engaged in sexual activity; medico-legally a criminal privacy/stalking offence.

Sexual arousal from or sexual acts with animals; categorised as paraphilic disorder in DSM-5; constitutes a criminal offence under Indian law (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act + BNS provisions).