Supreme Court Rejects Karnataka Govt's Argument That Sexual Act On Dead Body Amounts To 'Rape' Offence

The Supreme Court today (February 4) observed that since the Penal Laws do not recognise Necrophilia as an offence, it cannot interfere with the part acquittal order of the High Court in a case where the accused had sex with the body of the deceased after murdering her. The bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah was hearing a plea challenging the order of the Karnataka High Court which acquitted the accused from charges of rape for having sexual intercourse with the murdered body but upheld the conviction under the offence of murder. Here the State Government has filed the present SLP. Additional Advocate General of Karnataka, Aman Panwar appearing for the State argued that the term 'body' under S. 375(c) should be read to include dead body also. He further highlighted as under the 7th description of the definition of rape, a situation where a woman cannot communicate consent will be considered as rape. Thus, here also the dead body would not be able to give consent. Refusing to entertain the challenge, the bench in its order said that Necrophilia is not an offence under IPC, and it was not inclined to interfere. Notably, the High Court bench of Justice B Veerappa and Justice Venkatesh Naik T held that sexual assault on the dead body of a woman will not attract the offence of Rape punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. It thus acquitted a man of rape charges for committing sexual assault on the dead body of a 21 years old girl, after murdering her.The bench partly overturned the decision of the trial court of convicting under S. 376, and it reasoned, ". A careful reading of the provisions of Sections 375 and 377 of the Indian Penal Code make it clear that, the dead body cannot be called as human or person. Thereby, the provisions of sections 375 or 377 of the Indian Penal Code would not attract. Therefore, there is no offence committed punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code."High Court's Recommendations To Penalise Necrophilia: The High Court held that sexual intercourse on the dead body is nothing but necrophilia- an erotic attraction to corpses. Court noted Necrophilia is a "psychosexual disorder" which DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) classifies among a group of disorders called 'paraphilias' including paedophilia, exhibitionism and sexual masochism. While it acquitted the accused for the offence of rape, it also observed the need for the Parliament to come up with laws penalising Necrophilia, it stated : "It is brought to our notice that most of the government and private hospitals where the dead bodies, especially young woman kept in mortuary the attendant who appointed to guard, have sexual intercourse on the dead body. Thereby it is high time for the State Government to ensure such crime should not happen, thereby maintaining dignity of the dead body of the woman. Unfortunately in India no specific legislation enacted including under the provisions of Indian Penal Code for the purpose of upholding dignity and protecting rights and crime against the dead body of the woman." "It is high time for the Central Government in order to maintain right to dignity of the dead person/woman to amend the provisions of Section 377 of IPC should include dead body of any men, woman or animal or to introduce a separate provision as offence against dead woman as necrophilia or sadism as has been done in United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, to ensure dignity of the dead person including woman." Case Details : THE STATE OF KARNATAKA vs. RANGARAJU @ VAJAPEYI| SLP(Crl) No. 005403 - / 2024Related- 'Rape' On A Dead Body 'Horrendous' Act But It Doesn't Amount To An Offence Of Rape: Chhattisgarh High Court Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Rejects Karnataka Govt's Argument That Sexual Act On Dead Body Amounts To 'Rape' Offence

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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