Discuss (a) statutory rape

Definition (the Code's scheme): sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent, or where consent is obtained by force, threat, coercion, or deception, or where the victim cannot consent (the age bands; the unsoundness of mind; the custodial relationships). The elements' anatomy: (i) the intercourse (the actus); (ii) the absence of genuine consent — the consent's vitiating catalogue: force, fear of death or hurt, unconsciousness, intoxication, the fraud-as-to- nature; (iii) the mens — the knowledge of non-consent or reckless indifference; (iv) the statutory incapacity heads where consent is legally impossible (the child below the age band — the statutory rape structure). The consent doctrine (the modern core): consent — a free and voluntary agreement — as the offence's pivot; the old corroboration-warning rules and the victim's-past-sexual-history scrutiny abolished or restricted in the modern scheme; the court-made safeguards for fair trial (in-camera proceedings; the victim's identity protection). The proof question: Janak Tripathi, NKP (2062 B.S.), No. 9, p. 269 — the leading decision on proof in rape cases (the evidence's special handling where the offence leaves no witnesses but the parties). Aggravations (the Code's ladder): the child-victim bands (younger the victim, graver the grade); gang rape; custodial rape (the official, the warden, the hospital's abuser); rape in the course of other offences; rape causing death or grievous hurt; the marital-rape head…