New Delhi, June 11 -- The Delhi high court has held that a woman's gender cannot be used to either justify the withdrawal of rape allegations or to discredit the credibility of her accusation. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, in a recent bail order, stated that gender, while intrinsic to the nature of the offence, cannot become grounds to negate a woman's own testimony or rationalise its retraction. "A woman cannot be conferred the right to allege sexual assault. and later be permitted to resile from her own statement on the same ground that she is a woman," the court noted. "Her gender cannot be turned around as a reason to doubt the truthfulness of her complaint." The court was hearing the bail plea of a man accused in a 2024 gang rape case. The complainant alleged that three men, including the applicant, intoxicated and raped her. The woman repeated this claim before a magistrate and during her medical examination. However, during the bail hearing, she retracted her allegations, stating the accused was only present at the scene and had not assaulted her. The woman's counsel argued she may have been mistaken being "a woman" and "illiterate". The court granted bail, citing the completed investigation and the man's seven-month judicial custody. However, justice Sharma flagged the harm caused by such reversals. "It burdens the justice delivery system and causes irreversible harm to the accused," she said, adding that the legal and social damage from false or withdrawn allegations cannot easily be undone....