The passage of the three Bills which we can refer as the New IPC, New CrPC and new IEA for easy understanding is a momentous development which is nothing short of “Revolutionary”. In such a massive exercise there are bound to be many missed opportunities. These missed opportunities need to be spotted and flagged for future amendment or reading down by the Court. This is the process of development of “Jurisprudence”. Naavi.org will be trying to place its observations from time to time to flag such issues,starting with this .
Naavi
Section 78 of the New IPC (Bharatiya Nyaay Sanhita or BNS 2023) states:
- (1) Any man who—
(i) follows a woman and contacts, or attempts to contact such woman to foster
personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such woman; or
(ii) monitors the use by a woman of the internet, e-mail or any other form of
electronic communication,
commits the offence of stalking:
Provided that such conduct shall not amount to stalking if the man who pursued it
proves that—
(i) it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime and the man
accused of stalking had been entrusted with the responsibility of prevention and
detection of crime by the State; or
(ii) it was pursued under any law or to comply with any condition or requirement
imposed by any person under any law; or
(iii) in the particular circumstances such conduct was reasonable and justified.
(2) Whoever commits the offence of stalking shall be punished on first conviction with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also
be liable to fine; and be punished on a second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment
of either description for a term which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine
It may be observed that the section covers “Cyber Stalking” also.
A question however arises if “Staliking” is only a phenomenon that applies to a “Man” who follows a “Woman”. Would it not have been better in the days of “Honey Trapping” to make this section “Gender neutral”?
Under Section 2(10), the Act states:
(10) “gender”.—The pronoun “he” and its derivatives are used of any person,
whether male, female or transgender.
There is however a conflict under section 2(19) which states : (19) “man” means male human being of any age;
Jurisprudence demands that this definition 2(10) may be used to consider Section 78 as gender neutral.
Comments are welcome.
Naavi
