Women groups have demanded sweeping changes in the definition of consent in rape cases which fall under the Criminal Law (Amend-ment) Bill, 2012.
Their primary demand is change in the definition of consent which has worked against the interests of women under Section 375 IPC to the conduct of the accused.
Elaborating on this, criminal lawyer Rebecca John said that the judiciary looks at two key elements while examining a rape case. “Firstly, was it consensual rape, and the second is the corroborative evidence at the rape site,” she said.
But the latter is difficult to establish since “consent” in a large number of women could be submission. It is therefore important “to look at the conduct and behaviour of the perpetrator of the crime,” Ms John pointed out.
The CLAB defines various forms of sexual offences but fails to recognise the graded nature of sexual assault. Formulating the crime as gender neutral means the perpetrator could be either a man or woman.
In the Indian social context, women are seldom accused of committing rape.
The reason why the bill had been kept gender neutral was because young boys are also subjected to sexual assault but the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which was passed recently, covered this issue.
Women’s groups also want sexual assault by security forces to be included under Sec 376 (2).
Activists believe that if custodial rape can be treated as an offence that so can rape by members of military and paramilitary forces. They have also demanded fast-track courts for rape which state governments must operationalise on a priority basis with sentences being given within a six month period.
They also spoke out against death penalty for rapists as this, they believe, would not act as a deterrent. Human Rights lawyer Vrinda Grover pointed out that there was no evidence to suggest that the death penalty acted as a deterrent to rape. Already, rape cases have a conviction rate of 26 per cent and death penalty would lower this conviction rate even further.
The most important factor that acted as a deterrent was the certainty of punishment rather than the severity of its form. Activists from several organisations met President Pranab Mukherjee later in the evening.