NEW DELHI: Delhi HC Tuesday directed Centre to clarify if sodomy and non-consensual unnatural sex remain offences under BNS, which came into force on July 1, 2024, replacing IPC.
“Where is that provision? There is no provision at all. It is not there. There has to be something. The question is if an offence is not there and if it is obliterated, then is it an offence,” a bench of acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said while hearing a PIL challenging the absence of legal remedy for a victim of these offences.
“Quantum (of punishment) we obviously cannot decide but unnatural sex which is non-consensual needs to be taken care of by legislature,” HC pointed out. It granted time to Centre’s counsel to seek instructions and listed the matter for Aug 28.
HC was hearing a PIL by lawyer Gantavya Gulati, seeking to address “exigent legal lacuna” resulting from enactment of BNS, which has no similar offence or penal provision on lines of IPC Section 377. Gulati submitted that IPC Sec 377, even after being read down by Supreme Court, retained punishment for non-consensual unnatural sex between two adults, sexual activities against minors, and bestiality.
“Where is that provision? There is no provision at all. It is not there. There has to be something. The question is if an offence is not there and if it is obliterated, then is it an offence,” a bench of acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said while hearing a PIL challenging the absence of legal remedy for a victim of these offences.
“Quantum (of punishment) we obviously cannot decide but unnatural sex which is non-consensual needs to be taken care of by legislature,” HC pointed out. It granted time to Centre’s counsel to seek instructions and listed the matter for Aug 28.
HC was hearing a PIL by lawyer Gantavya Gulati, seeking to address “exigent legal lacuna” resulting from enactment of BNS, which has no similar offence or penal provision on lines of IPC Section 377. Gulati submitted that IPC Sec 377, even after being read down by Supreme Court, retained punishment for non-consensual unnatural sex between two adults, sexual activities against minors, and bestiality.