The lack of gender neutrality is perhaps one of the most defining features of India`s rape laws. According to the CPI, a man cannot be a victim of rape. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) instructions to the Supreme Court led to recommendations by the Law Commission of India to broaden the scope and definition of sexual intercourse and make it more gender-neutral. Even though India does not recognize marital rape as a criminal offence, the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday issued a landmark ruling that can be described as groundbreaking, saying that “rape is rape, whether by the husband.” The gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a public bus on December 16, 2012 sparked major protests in the capital. Delhi. [13] She was dating a friend who was severely beaten with an iron bar during the incident. [48] The same rod was used to penetrate them so hard that the victim`s intestines had to be surgically removed before they died thirteen days after the attack. [49] Using a small sample survey, Human Rights Watch predicts that more than 7,200 minors – 1.6 minors out of every 100,000 – are raped in India each year. On October 22, 1947, Pashtun fighters invaded Baramulla in a Pakistani army truck and raped women, including European nuns. [68] In March 1990, Ms. M. N. Paul, wife of a BSF inspector, was abducted, tortured, and raped for several days.

Then his body was left with broken limbs on a road. [69] Before 3. In February 2013, Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code defined rape as:[18] Some people in a cheering crowd demanded that she be raped. More than 28,000 cases of alleged rape of women were reported in 2020 – one approximately every 18 minutes – according to India`s National Crime Records Bureau. Since many rapes go unreported out of fear, experts believe the actual number could be much higher. These statements were made in the context of an interpretation of the Medical Abortion Act 1971, which originally applied only to married women or in cases of rape or threat to the life of the mother up to the 20th week. The new law made it mandatory for all public and private hospitals in India to provide free first aid and medical treatment to rape victims. [108] The 2013 law also raised the age of consent from 16 to 18, and any sexual activity with people under 18, regardless of consent, now constitutes legal rape. [22] As CNN reported in 2020, a man convicted of raping a woman faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

This can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty, depending on the circumstances and details of the crime. However, if the victim is transgender, the rapist faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison, as defined in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019. [24] “It is only through legal fiction that marital rape will be removed from the realm of rape,” the order states. In 1972, the rape laws enforced by the Mathura rape riot were amended for the first time. 26. In March 1972, Mathura, an Adivasi girl from Maharashtra, accused police officers of raping her. A court of first instance acquitted the police, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court. Only the Supreme Court found her guilty. Police defended themselves by saying the girl was “relaxed” because she had a boyfriend and therefore could not be raped. In its 1978 decision, the Supreme Court stated that the absence of signs of injury “contributes greatly to making alleged sexual intercourse a peaceful matter.” Until 2017, there was a discrepancy between two paragraphs of section 375. Exception 2 states that “sexual intercourse between a man and his own wife, in which the woman is not less than fifteen years of age, does not constitute rape.” [121] However, the same provision states that a man must commit rape if he has sexual relations with a woman with or without her consent if she is under 18 years of age.

[122] Independent Thought, a non-governmental organization, challenged Exception 2 in a petition in 2013. [122] In a landmark October 11, 2017 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the age of consent at 18. [123] The court held that the distinction between a married girl and an unmarried girl was illogical and contrary to the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Such a distinction also violates the child`s right to liberty and dignity guaranteed by article 21 of the Constitution. Two other important laws undermined by the original ICC article were the Child Marriage Prohibition Act of 2006 and the Juvenile Justice Act, both of which define a child as a person under the age of 18. [124] Explanation. –– The penetration is sufficient to establish the sexual intercourse necessary for the offence of rape. The next day, there was an uproar in the Indian Parliament about the incident. MPs in both houses had set aside their usual business to discuss the case and demanded severe penalties for those who carried out the attack.

Lok Sabha opposition leader Sushma Swaraj demanded that “rapists be hanged.” [50] Thousands of people, mostly youth, participated in a massive demonstration on December 22. [51] Police arrested six men on suspicion of rape. [52] In 2018, when the Supreme Court decriminalized consensual sexual relations between homosexuals, it is even more important that rape laws become more gender-neutral. Indian law prior to the Nirbhaya incident did not consider acts of penile-vaginal sex in the definition of rape and violent acts of penetration into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus through the penis or an inanimate object did not fall within the definition of rape. Many rapists were not prosecuted because there was no law to punish such acts. [21] The definition was expanded in 2013 to include any act such as penetrating a penis or object or body part in any way into a woman`s vagina, mouth, urethra or anus, or to induce her to do so with another person or to apply the mouth to sexual organs without the woman`s consent or will, constitutes the offence of rape. [105] On January 17, 2018, Asifa, an 8-year-old girl, was raped and murdered in the village of Rasana near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. The incident made national headlines when charges were laid against eight men in April 2018.