Rape law in India | Article|

Rape law in India

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  Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India.  According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2013 annual report, 24,923 rape cases were reported across India in 2012. Out of these, 24,470 were committed by someone known to the victim (98% of the cases).

What is rape? 

Rape is a most heinous crime against women usually involving sexual intercourse which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that persons consent . The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, or below

Rape Law in India 

     Indian law treats rape as a criminal offence. It falls under criminal law in India. The Indian Penal Code (IPC- Section 375) defines rape as intentional, unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman, with or without her consent under several circumstances. An offender is liable to be punished with an imprisonment of minimum 7 years to maximum 10 years and fine. Further, if the offence is committed in custody or on an expecting woman, or a woman below 12 years or gang rape, the punishment will be minimum 10 years of imprisonment. However, the definition of rape under the Indian laws does not cover forced oral sex or sodomy. These acts are separately covered under section 354, of IPC, which deals with criminal assault and outraging the modesty of a woman. Section 377 of IPC deals with unnatural sexual acts while Indian law does not recognize forced sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, above 15 years, as an act of rape. 

After 3 February 2013, the definition was revised through the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, which also raised the legal age of minor to eighteen.

Section 375. A man is said to commit "rape" if he:–– (a) penetrates his penis, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (b) inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, the urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (c) manipulates any part of the body of a woman so as to cause penetration into the vagina, urethra, anus or any part of body of such woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (d) applies his mouth to the vagina, anus, urethra of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person, under the circumstances falling under any of the following seven descriptions:

Firstly. –– Against her will.

Secondly. –– Without her consent.

Thirdly. –– With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested, in fear of death or of hurt.

Fourthly. –– With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married.

Fifthly. –– With her consent when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome Substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent.

Sixthly. –– With or without her consent, when she is under eighteen years of age.

Seventhly. –– When she is unable to communicate consent.

Explanation 1. –– For the purposes of this section, "vagina" shall also include labia majora.

Explanation 2. –– Consent means an unequivocal voluntary agreement when the woman by words, gestures or any form of verbal or non-verbal communication, communicates willingness to participate in the specific sexual act;

Provided that a woman who does not physically resist to the act of penetration shall not by the reason only of that fact, be regarded as consenting to the sexual activity. Exceptions –– 1. A medical procedure or intervention shall not constitute rape; 2. Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.

Even after the 2013 reform, marital rape when the wife and husband live together continued not to be a crime in India. Article 376B of the 2013 law made forced sexual intercourse by a man with his wife – if she is living separately – a crime, whether under a decree of separation or otherwise, punishable with at least a 2-year prison term. Forced sex by a man on his wife may also be considered a prosecutable domestic violence under other sections of Indian Penal code, such as Section 498(A) as well as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. The crime of sexual assault on a child, that is anyone below the age of eighteen, is further outlined and mandatory punishments described in The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012.

All sexual acts between the members of the same sex, consensual or forced, was previously a crime under Section 377 of Indian penal code, after the 2013 Criminal Law reform, with punishment the same as that of rape but it was later overturned in a landmark judgement of the Supreme Court on 6 September 2018 which stated all consensual sexual acts between adults who have met the age of consent are not violative of Section 377, hence decriminalizing gay sex in India.

This article is prepared in a generic aspect for a further understanding about the law against rape in India. The facts mentioned here may vary from case to case and time to time. Please visit a competent lawyer to get the right information. Click link here  https://www.lawyerprofiles.com/ 

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