Supreme Court rejects Karnataka's plea to hold necrophilia as rape under Section 375 IPC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal filed by the Karnataka government challenging a 2023 verdict of the High Court which had held that necrophilia (sexual acts on woman's dead body) would not attract the offence of rape under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) [State of Karnataka v. Rangaraju @ Vajapeyi v]..A Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that it is for the parliament to examine the issue and make relevant changes to the law if necessary.The Court said that the State can make necessary representation to the parliament. .In the present case, the accused had murdered a 21-year-old woman and then had sexual intercourse with the dead body.The trial court convicted the accused for both murder under Section 302 of IPC and rape under Section 375 of IPC. The High Court in May 2023 said that necrophilia would not come within the scope of rape under Section 375 IPC or unnatural offences under Section 377 of IPC."A careful reading of Sections 375 and 377 of IPC makes it clear that a dead body cannot be called a human or person. Therefore, the provisions of Section 375 or 377 would not be attracted," the High Court said.It further stated that it is high time the Central government makes changes to IPC to make necrophilia an offence.Thus, the High Court urged the Central government to either amend Section 377 of IPC or introduce a separate penal provision to criminalise necrophilia.It then proceeded to acquit the man under Section 375 IPC since the act was on the dead body of the woman.However, his conviction for murder was upheld.The Karnataka government then approached the Supreme Court challenging the acquittal for the offence of rape..Additional Advocate General Aman Panwar, appearing for the State, argued that Section 375 should be read to include rape on dead body within it scope since a dead person cannot give consent to sexual acts. The word 'body' used in Section 375(c) should be read to include 'dead body', it was contended.It was further argued that seventh description to Section 375 encompasses when a woman is unable to communicate consent and therefore, even by this description, a dead body (which cannot communicate consent) should be included within the scope of the offence.The Court should read down Section 375 and liberally construe the same to include dead bodies, Panwar said.He also relied upon the 1995 decision of the top court in Pt. Paramanand Katara Vs. Union of India in which it was held that right to dignity and fair treatment ought to be applied to dead bodies also.International courts including Supreme Court of Tennessee in State v. Brobeck have expanded similar penal provisions to include dead bodies within the ambit of rape, it was pointed out..However, the Court declined to interfere.