Improper and irrelevant questioning by policemen to doctors examining a rape victim in sexual assault cases is leading to miscarriage of justice, a study has said.

The 67-page study, conducted by Dr Indrajit Khandekar, submitted to the Union and State ministries of Home, Health, Law and Judiciary, NHRC, & National Women's Commission recently blamed the police officials for the lapses.

"Improper, irrelevant questions, by the police officers in India to doctors in police requisition letter during Forensic Medical Examination of the Sexually Assaulted Victims and unscientific and legally irrelevant medical opinions to it are leading to miscarriage of justice and also causing violation of human rights," Khandekar, Assistant Professor, Forensic Medicine Department at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, has said.

He has already filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court on improper forensic medical examination of rape victims by the medical doctors immediately when victim reaches a hospital.

The PIL has now been posted for November 24 in which Dr Khandekar's format of examination and that of Government Hospitals will come up for hearing.

Whenever the rape victims report the matter, police send her to the hospital for 'Forensic Medical Examination' and ask some irrelevant queries like, whether rape occurred or not and whether the victim is habituated to sexual intercourse, he said.

"When doctors opine that no rape occurred or it is a case of attempt to rape because of absence of injury on the prosecutrix body, then such unnecessary opinions gives the undue advantage to the accused," the study has said.

"Such opinion of the doctor only illustrates the vastness of his ignorance of the true meaning and scope of the term of rape," Khandekar said in his study.

The Professor further said that the opinion of the doctor whether "she is habituated to sexual intercourse" are often used as evidence in courts to demolish a woman's character and disqualify her testimony.

"On such opinions defence lawyers urge that the victim was a woman of questionable character and easy virtue with lewd and lascivious behaviour and shows that her version is not worthy of acceptance which end up passing moral judgement on the victim rather than bringing her any justice," Khandekar said.

The courts in the country have a low conviction rate in rape cases, usually because the credibility of the victim is brought under question by such queries which are routinely asked by the police or during the trial of the case to the doctors.

Even Supreme Court has held that the victim is "habituated to sexual intercourse" is immaterial and irrelevant to the issue of consent in a rape trial, he further added in his study.

Dr Khandekar study materials have been accepted for annual conference of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine being held at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh shortly.