A petition seeking to make sexual assault offences, such as rape, stalking, etc. gender neutral was dismissed by the Supreme Court in February 2018. The bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra stated that it is up to Parliament to revamp the colonial penal code after gauging the changed social circumstances.
The bench said that the provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) are affirmative provisions to protect women. Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POSCO) Act is gender neutral as it takes into consideration a child up to 18 years of age. But as far as sections to protect women are concerned, they are victim-oriented and Parliament has acknowledged women as the victim.
The petitioner said the word ‘man’ wherever it is used in the definition of crimes under the IPC should be substituted with ‘person’, making the crime gender-neutral, thus applicable to both man and woman. As for the petitioner’s contention that even a man could be stalked or molested, the bench considered it as an ‘imaginative’ situation.