Definition of rape not being diluted, says PC

Moves afoot to widen the term to include all kinds of sexual assault

PTI | March 16, 2010



Rejecting suggestions that government was diluting the definition of rape, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said moves were afoot to widen the term to include all kinds of sexual assault.

"We are not going to dilute the definition of rape. The definition of rape will be widened to include all kinds of sexual assaults," he said replying to supplementaries during Question Hour.

The suggestion to make sexual assault gender neutral was made by a high-powered committee headed by Home Secretary G K Pillai a few days back.

A similar recommendation was also made in a report of the Law Commission, Chidambaram said adding the Home Ministry would soon bring a bill in this regard.

Making sexual assault "gender neutral" will imply that the relevant sections of IPC can be slapped on accused of any gender who has committed the crime.

As per Section 375 of IPC, penetration is sufficient to constitute sexual intercourse necessary to the offence of rape but with the proposed replacements coming in, sexual assault will also cover crimes like sodomy, insertion of foreign object and other similar offences which do not come under the present definition of rape.

To a question on harassment of 'in-laws' in case of dowry deaths, Chidambaram said instructions have been issued to arrest only those who are directly involved in the case and not the extended family.

Comments

 

Other News

What the nine Indian Nobel winners have in common

A Touch Of Genius: The Wisdom of India’s Nobel Laureates Edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee Aleph Books, Rs 1499, 848 pages  

Income Tax dept holds Ghatkopar Outreach on new IT Act

The Income Tax Department organised an outreach programme in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, to raise awareness about the key features of the Income Tax Act, 2025, effective April 1, 2026. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to promote taxpayer awareness, simplify compliance, and strengthen a transparent, eff

Making AI work where governance is closest to people

India’s next governance leap may not solely come from digitisation. It will come from making public systems more intelligent, more adaptive, and more responsive to the dynamics at the grassroots. That opportunity is especially significant at the panchayat level, where governance is not an abstract po

Borrowing troubles: How small loans are quietly trapping youth

A silent crisis is playing out in the pocket of young India, not in stock markets or government treasuries, but in smartphones of college students and first-jobbers who clicked on the Apply Now button without reading the small print.  A decade ago, to take a loan, you had to do some paperwor

A 19th-century pilgrim’s progress

The Travels of a Sadhu in the Himalayas By Jaladhar Sen (Translated by Somdatta Mandal) Speaking Tiger Books, 259 pages, ₹499.00  

India faces critical shortage of skin donors amid rising burn cases

India reports nearly 70 lakh burn injury cases every year, resulting in approximately 1.4 lakh deaths annually. Experts estimate that up to 50% of these lives could be saved with adequate access to skin donations.   A significant concern is that around 70% of burn victims fall wi


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter