Seminar On Rape Crimes

Seminar or Laws against Rape in India
Gang Rape, Custodial Rape, Marital Rape, Sexual Harassment

Legal Perspective and Interpretation based on Recent
Judgment in India
Before entering into the topic we need to understand the Clear

definition or Interpretation of what is / what amount to or what
constitutes the term Rape as per our Indian Judiciary.
History of Rape law:
First introduced in the Indian Penal Code in 1860.
What Indian Penal Code says about Rape?
Section 375 of the IPC made punishable the act of sex by a
man with a woman if it was done against her will or without her
consent.
Her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in
whom she is interested, in fear of death or of hurt is considered
to be Rape
Sex with or without her consent, when she is under 18 years is
considered rape.
Section 376 provided for seven years of jail term to life
imprisonment
Gang Rape
Dealt under Section 376D of IPC
Section 376D of IPC deals with gang rape. It states that “When
a woman is raped by one or more persons which constituting a
group or acting in furtherance of a common intention, each of
those persons shall be deemed to have committed the rape
and shall be sentenced with rigorous imprisonment for a term
which must not be less than 20 years, but which may extend to
life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of the
natural life of the person, and with fine. Such a fine must be
just and reasonable in order to meet the victim’s medical
expenses and rehabilitation further, provided that any fine
imposed under this section shall be paid to the victim.
This provision for gang rape recognizes that this is not

necessary for each member of the group to actually commit the
crime of rape to have a high degree of culpability. The law
punishes any activity which is done in furtherance of the
common intention of the group as if it was the offence of rape
itself. This means that even those persons who stand guard at
doors cannot get away with a lesser punishment by claiming
that they did not actually commit the sexual assault.
Custodial Rape
Mathura custodial rape case 1972
In 1972 a young Adivasi girl named Mathura was allegedly
raped by policemen in the Desai Gunj Police Station in
Maharashtra.
In the trial that ensued, the sessions court came to the
conclusion that she had sexual intercourse while at the police
station but rape had not been proved and that she was
habituated to intercourse.
The sessions court acquitted both the policemen, the High
Court reversed the order of acquittal.
When the case reached the Supreme Court, it overturned the
High Court verdict saying that “the intercourse in question is
not proved to amount rape”.
SC 1978 verdict, said no marks of injury were found on the girl
after the incident and “their absence goes a long way to
indicate that the alleged intercourse was a peaceful affair”.
Controversy and Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act
1983
Controversial SC 1978 verdict sparked wide scale protests
across the country seeking a change in existing rape laws. This
led to Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act of 1983.
Section 114A in the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 was inserted
which presumed that there is absence of consent in certain
prosecutions of rape if the victim says so. This applied to
custodial rape cases.
Section 228A was added which makes it punishable to disclose
the identity of the victim in Rape case
Law Commission:
Law Commission in its 172th report recommended widening the
scope of rape law to make it gender neutral.
While the rape law in India even today remains gender specific,
as the perpetrator of the offence can only be a ‘man’, the
172nd report led to the amendments in the Indian Evidence Act
in 2002.
Nirbhaya case in Delhi 2012 &Criminal Law
(Amendment) Act in 2013
Parliament made the amendments on the recommendation of
the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, which was constituted to re-
look the criminal laws in the country and recommend changes.
The 2013 Act, increased jail terms in most sexual assault cases
and also provided for the death penalty in rape cases that
cause death of the victim or leaves her in a vegetative state.
It also created new offences, such as use of criminal force on a
woman with intent to disrobe, voyeurism and stalking.
Unwelcome physical contact, words or gestures, demand or
request for sexual favours, showing pornography against the
will of a woman or making sexual remarks stalking was made
punishable acid attack was increased to 10 years of
imprisonment.
Offences against minors (Kathua Rape case in Jammu
and Kashmir)
Led to the passing of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018
which for the first time put death penalty as a possible
punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years;
The minimum punishment is 20 years in jail.
The minimum jail term for rape, which has remained
unchanged since the introduction of the IPC in 1860, was
increased from seven to 10 years.
Marital rape
Considered as non-consensual sexual relationship in a marital
life.
Exception stated in Section 375: sexual intercourse or sexual
acts by a man with his wife, the wife not being under 15 years
of age, is not rape.
In the case of Hrishikesh Sahoo v State of Karnataka On May
11, 2022, a Bench comprising of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and C.
Hari Shankar, delivered a split verdict in the case. Justice
Shakdher stated that the exception was unconstitutional as it
was discriminatory and violated a woman’s bodily autonomy
and expression. On the other hand, Justice Shankar held that in
the institution of marriage, sexual relations whether consensual
or non-consensual, are a legitimate expectation making the
exception to rape legal. Both Judges granted permission to the
parties to appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.
In late 2022, an activist Ms. Ruth Manorama filed a fresh
petition at the Supreme Court challenging the marital rape
exception. On January 9th, 2023 a Bench comprising Chief
Justice D.Y Chandrachud and Justice P.S Narasimha clubbed
these petitions and listed them all for hearing on March 21,
2023. Case No. SLP(Cr.) 4063-4064 of 2022 is still pending for
final verdict.
National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2017 report:
A total of 3,59,849 cases were reported against women in
2017.( 2016, 3.38 lakh , 3.2 lakh cases 2015) The number of
cases reported has increased.
Uttar Pradesh has again topped the list with 56,011 cases of
crime against women, followed by Maharashtra with 31,979
cases and West Bengal at 30,002.
Crimes against women constitute murder, rape, dowry death,
suicide abetment, acid attack, cruelty against women and
kidnapping.
‘Cruelty by husband or his relatives’ accounts for 27.9 per cent
of the crimes against women.
‘Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’
comprise 21.7 per cent, followed by ‘kidnapping and abduction
of women’ with 20.5 per cent and ‘rape’ with 7.0 per cent of
reported cases.
Rape data:
‘Rape’ stands with 7.0 per cent of reported cases.
A total of 32,559 rapes were reported in 2017 in India.
Madhya Pradesh has recorded the highest number of rape
cases at 5,562 cases being reported in 2017. Uttar Pradesh is
second to MP.
Delhi, saw a decline in reporting of rape cases, in 2017, 13,076
were reported, which is the lowest in the last three years.
93.1 percent cases the accused were known to the victims.
Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur,
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura can be seen as
moderately safer than other states as they recorded the lowest
number of cases.
Suggested Preventive Measure.

Though there are thousands of scholars- researchers, field
workers and social activists who were doing research and had
suggested the government to make the laws / penal provisions
much more stringent which reduces the rape crime.
But still there is a need for psychological analysis or approach
as to what made these criminals or offenders to commit such a
heinous crime.
First and foremost thing is lack of awareness about the exiting
stringent laws which itself can extend up to capital punishment.
Neither the Capital punishment nor any other stringent
punishment is going to stop the future from preventing this
heinous crime unless the youngsters are taught about the Anti-
Rape Laws.
Disclaimer:
1. Fundamental approach
At the very outset there so many crimes listed in our IPC
Murder, Theft, Robbery etc., none of them are gender
specific except rape, which is often committed against
women. Majority of our society believes that sexual
harassment and rape crimes are against women.
It is essential to see the root cause for this gender specific
approach.
We or most of us spent our first 15 years in our schooling
which is the place where we taught every basic and
fundamental thing including our habit, our communication
and our extracurricular activities too, but none of our
subject taught about how to approach our society and how
to behave with fellow beings.
There is a famous saying that “student who failed to get

punishment in school gets punishment from police in
future”
It’s completely a wrong and foolish approach, during the
young school life of a student he/she should be treated as
a student only not a criminal.
Whatever he/she learns in this period later gets reflected

in the society.
The first punishment which a person gets is from his
teacher in the school for an activity which is not at all
mentioned anywhere in the IPC.
Need for Moral class from class which should teach the
students about the societal approach, violence and how to
treat fellow humans and should exclusively teach him
about what are all venomous to the society Eg. Snake,
Electricity, Wild Animals, Hurting fellow humans.
2. Societies view on criticizing Modern Outfit culture or western

culture. It’s a wrong approach. Victim is always victimised as
the cause as per our society.
3. Regular outreach program by the local police in the college
premises yearly once and mandatorily to the fresher’s which
prevents all type of crimes including ragging.

Seminar On Rape Crimes

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Seminar On Rape Crimes

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Seminar or Laws against Rape in India

Gang Rape, Custodial Rape, Marital Rape, Sexual Harassment

Before entering into the topic we need to understand the Clear

This provision for gang rape recognizes that this is not

Suggested Preventive Measure.

There is a famous saying that “student who failed to get

Whatever he/she learns in this period later gets reflected

2. Societies view on criticizing Modern Outfit culture or western

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