Section 377 gone, no protection for men against sexual assault in proposed criminal law

The Centre has proposed to drop Section 377 from the new set of criminal laws it plans to introduce to replace the current ones.

As a result, the proposed news laws have no provision for sexual offences against men. The new bills introduced in the Lok Sabha define rape as an offence committed by a man against a woman or a child.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) says "Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine".

Interpretation of Section 377 is what led to the criminalisation of gay sex in India, however, Supreme Court watered down the law to exclude 'consensual unnatural sex' by adults. Now with govt proposing to do away with Section 377 completely, there will be no law to deal with non-consensual acts against men.

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