A BILL INTRODUCED IN PARLIAMENT TO MAKE SEXUAL CRIMES GENDER NEUTRAL

INTRODUCTION:

The agenda of declaring sexual offences gender neutral is again brought before Parliament. Senior Criminal lawyer and Parliamentarian KTS Tulsi initiated a private members bill before the Rajya Sabha to introduce required amendments in the criminal laws to make sexual offences gender neutral.

The bill proposes amendments in various paramount acts like the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Criminal procedure Code and even the Indian Evidence Act to make sure that the expressions “any man” and “any woman” in the sections relating to sexual offences in the laws are modified as “any person”.

This would further include the protection of the law to women, men and even transgender persons.

The bill also takes into consideration that there has been a “spate of incidents consequence in injuries, psychological and mental trauma, emotional disbalances and brutal death of individuals on account of various sexual offences and exploitation committed against them”.

SOCIAL ISSUE:

The bill calls for insertion of a new offence in the rape laws – to comprise penalisation for “touching” without penetration of the genitals of the victim.

It calls for the enclosure of S375A in the IPC, to penalise “sexual assault” defined as “intentionally touches the genitals, anus or breast of the person or makes the person touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of that person or any other person, without the other person’s consent except where such touching is carried out for proper hygienic or medical purposes”.

Modifications and amendments in S375 under the 2013 amendment act redefined ‘rape’ as penetration and initiated stricter punishment for sexual harassment and even molestation under the section 354, this provision now calls for a new offence of “sexual assault” which would ultimately consider a punishment of up to three years imprisonment.

The declaration of objectives for the bill claims that it connotes to “provide for protection of the Constitutional rights of every individual vulnerable to sexual exploitation and offences, to penalise acts of sexual assault and rape of all individuals inclusion of but not restricted to men and transgender persons moreover to the protection bestowed to women under the existing penal laws and punish offenders of any sex or gender thereto”.

PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION:

The issue which was raised in a Social Action Litigation before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India last year. The court of law had then declined to pass any orders, nothing to that the matter required legislation had to be passed, which was the domain of Parliament.

CONCLUSION:

The plea filed by non-governmental organization (NGO) Criminal Justice Society of India sought that the definition of rape under Section 375 be held ‘ultra vires’ for being ‘discriminatory and violative of Articles 14 (right to equality), 15 (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex..) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India’. It is still to be heard by the court.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 did not make any changes to include men or transgenders as victims under the law.

-Vijaya Lakshmi Raju

Student Reporter, INBA.