RAPE LAW: Need for a relook

The need to revisit Indian Penal Code's Section 375 and expand upon it is felt now more than before

Gajanan Khergamker Mumbai

To weigh every crime by the same measure and rule lacks logic in that with the varying nature and gravity would change the corresponding punishment, however deterring, retributive, preventive, reformative or compensatory in nature. So, our system has a maximum sentence laid down by the codes wherein a court of law could pass a sentence up to a maximum of whatever has been specified and no more.

The need to revisit Indian Penal Code's Section 375 and expand upon it is felt now more than before. Far from any attempt to dilute the section and/or its punishment, there is a valid need to expand its definition and evolve a table of corresponding punishments.
Section 375 that deals with rape reads:

A man is said to commit 'rape' who, except in the case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the six following descriptions:
 Against her will
 Without her consent
 With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested in fear of death or of hurt
 With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband, and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married
 With her consent, when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent
 With or without her consent, when she is under sixteen years of age
Most important here, in the context, that is commonly confused remains the second condition wherein a man has sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent.

The first context in which a man has sexual intercourse with a woman against her will, irrespective of her age, consent, state of mind etc., and the sixth in which a man has sexual intercourse with or without her consent when she is under sixteen years of age is construed an out-and-out rape by general standards which would neither condone the act nor leave space for any blame-sharing.
Explanation: Penetration is sufficient to constitute the sexual intercourse necessary to the offence of rape.
Exception: Sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.

Recently, a 21-year-old woman was allegedly raped by an unidentified youth in his mid-twenties at a railway station in Mumbai. The victim was raped on a foot-over-bridge (FOB) at the Ghatkopar station. After raping the victim, the accused allegedly admitted her to a hospital. The victim narrated the incident to policemen at the hospital after which a case of rape was registered.

According to a senior police inspector, the victim lost her parents a few years ago in an accident. Since then, she had been living at the Kalyan railway station and did odd jobs like washing utensils at food stalls at the station for a living. On Saturday night, she boarded a CST-bound local train and alighted at Ghatkopar station. She was sitting on the FOB when the accused tried befriending her. He then forcibly dragged her in a corner and allegedly raped her.