Laws against Rape and Other Sexual Offences in India

A look into the current laws in place in India to protect its citizens from all kinds of sexual exploitations and rape and other crimes.

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Rape and IPC: Rape and sexual crimes against any gender have long since been considered a crime under the ambit of Indian Law, by virtue of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). As far as the definition goes, it has been provided under section 375 which defines rape as the following:

A man is said to commit “rape” who, except in the case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the six following de-scriptions:


Laws for Statutory Rape in India


While normal rape, comprises of the element of lack of consent, or consent obtained through fraud or force, statutory rape varies in the sense that the consent so obtained, is not considered to be valid. This offence has been created to protect the exploitation of minors by such adults who would manipulate their way into having sexual intercourse with an otherwise unwilling party. Under this sort of offence of rape, the adult gets punished in case he had any kind of physical interaction with any woman or a girl, of the age of 18 or below, regardless of whether she had voluntarily participated in the act or not. Such consent, if obtained by the minor is inconsequential and shall not be considered as a defence to the accused. The minimum age of consent in India is 18 years old and the age of consent implies the age at which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participate in any sexual activity. The individual who is still of 17 years of age or younger, shall not be considered as legally old enough to give their viable consent to participate in any kind of sexual activity. Hence, if a male and a female, both of the age 17 enter into voluntary intercourse, the male can still be arrested and charged with rape.
However, more often than not in such cases, wherein there is no actual exploitation of the minor, taking into consideration the statement of the minor female, the accused is often let off.

Misuse of Statutory Rape by Families


In India, considering the cultural backdrop and religious notions still prevalent in our country, more often than not, when young men and women fall in love or elope and run away from their families, the parents of the girl usually resort to filing a false rape accusation against the boy in order to deter the couple from getting married. Since statutory rape is considered a very serious offence, it is the duty of the police to act immediately. However, in such cases, if the female stands her ground and explains to the court that she had left of her own accord and not under any compulsion or force acts then the Courts are obliged to let the male off.

Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013



Sexual Offenses against Minors



Tags: Statutory rape, Rape, Sexual Assault, Sexual Offence, Minor rape, IPC, CRPC Copyright 2024 – Helpline Law

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