The recent Supreme Court judgment in the Ramkripal case by Justices Ajit Pasayat and S.H. Kapadia has brought clarity to section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Section 354 deals with assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty in circumstances in which the offender intends to so do or knows that it is likely that his actions will have the same result, but it does not define what constitutes a woman’s modesty.

Now Ramkripal has filled that void. The Supreme Court has said that “the essence of a woman’s modesty is her sex” and that “the act of pulling a woman, removing her saree, coupled with a request for sexual intercourse... would be an outrage of the modesty of the woman; and the knowledge that modesty is likely to be outraged, is sufficient to constitute the offence.”

But the problem is that the definition of molestation makes an assault on a woman culpable only if it is done with the intention of outraging her modesty. Redressal has been problematic in the absence of a liberal and expansive definition of ‘modesty’ and ‘intention of outraging’, courts have displayed a patriarchal mindset in dealing with the victim.

That brings us to the offence of rape defined in section 375, IPC. Rape is punishable by life imprisonment and a fine. The offence is constituted only when ‘penetration’ is present.

But how shall we to deal with cases that lie in the grey area between section 354 and section 375? What shall we do when a little girl or woman is subjected to something graver than molestation but not actually raped? The IPC provides us section 511 which deals with punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment to deal with such cases. It provides that when an offence is attempted to be committed or for which no specific punishment has been provided for in the code, an offender will be punishable with half the longest term of punishment that is prescribed for committing the respective offence. In other words, a court can convict the accused for attempted rape.

... contd.