New Delhi, February 2: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a petition seeking to make the crime of rape gender-neutral. In January this year, a fresh PIL was filed in the Court seeking to declare the offences of rape, sexual assault, outraging of modesty, voyeurism and stalking in the Indian Penal Code as gender-neutral.  The petition, that has been rejected by the Apex Court today also sought to declare the word 'any man' used in the provisions for such offences under IPC, as ultra vires of the Constitution.

The plea, filed by petitioner advocate Rishi Malhotra, said the reading of the concerned sections categorically demonstrates that all offences under the related provisions would always be committed by an accused who happens to be a 'man' and the victim would always be a 'woman'.

The plea said, "Declare the word 'any man' used under the offences under section 354 IPC, 354A IPC, 354B IPC, 354C IPC, 354D IPC and also section 375 IPC being ultravires the Constitution and in violation of Article 14 and Article 15 of the Constitution and should be struck down as it violates principle of gender neutrality on the basis of sex”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra told Malhotra that these are affirmative provisions for the protection of women and in their favour. “We cannot agree with your argument. This appears to us like an imaginative petition. Actually, these are valid classification”, a bench said.   “Crime has no gender and neither should our laws.  Women commit crime for the same reasons that men do.  The law does not and should not distinguish between criminals and every person who has committed an offence is liable to punishment under the Code”, argued Malhotra.

As per PTI reports, the plea which got rejected by the Supreme Court also claimed that section 354 of the IPC which deals with assault of or criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty and its allied provisions do not stipulate any law to protect the modesty of a man.  To recall, Section 354 A of IPC deals with the offence of sexual harassment and its punishment while section 354 B is defined as assault or use of criminal force against a woman with the intent to disrobe while Section 354 C of the code deals with the offence of Voyeurism whereas Section 354 D lists out the punishment for Stalking. The offence of rape is dealt in section 375 of the penal code.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 02, 2018 01:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).