Outraging the modesty of a woman:
Section 354
of the Indian Penal Code provides definition and punishment for the outraging
the modesty of a woman. The said section reads as follows:
354.
Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.-
Whoever
assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing
it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished
with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than
one year but which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Outraging
the modesty of a woman is an offence provided there is use of assault or
criminal force with the intention for the purpose or knowing it likely that he
will thereby outrage her modesty. The offence under this section is different
from rape and is of less seriousness than the one under Section 376.
It has been
made a non-bailable offence under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013.
Ingredients
The section
has two main ingredients:
(i) Assault
or use of criminal force to a woman. The act on his behalf must be an outcome
of the criminal force or an assault used by him.
(ii)
Intention of the actor or his knowledge that he would thereby commit this offence.
From the side of an accused, section 354 requires basic knowledge on his part
that his act is likely to cause harm to a woman's modesty.
Outraging
the modesty
In ordinary
language "modest" means freedom from conceit or vanity or propriety
in dress, speech and conduct. Modesty means sexual dignity of a woman which is
acquired by her since the time of her birth. Modesty is defined as something
lewd or scrupulously chaste as per the Oxford dictionary. The Supreme Court
defined, the essence of a woman’s modesty is her sex.
The word
"outrage" has affinity with extremely rude, violent, injurious or
insulting act on one hand and it is connected with guilt, culpability,
criminality and deviation from rectitude on the part of the person committing
assault or using criminal force on a woman. The word ‘outrage’ implies a
physical act.
The concept
of modesty is subjective to every woman i.e. the sexual limits are personal to
every woman; there cannot be a set formula to judge the boundaries of the sexual
honour of a woman. For example, a simple
touch on the shoulder might be unacceptable to a woman who lives in a rural
area but for a woman in an urban area it could be a casual gesture to greet
people. However, there are certain acts which are bound to violate the modesty
of every woman and these are the concerns of law, e.g. touching on her
posterior sexual organs etc.
Herein, the
modesty of a woman is violated by touching her without her consent at such parts
of her body which are unacceptable to her. The reaction of the woman is not very
relevant in judging as to whether an assault to her amount to outraging her
modesty as this offence differs from woman to woman. The ultimate test for
ascertaining whether modesty has been outraged is whether the act by the
accused is capable of shocking the sense of decency of the woman.
Examples-
include demand for disrobing her, defamatory remarks, forcefully dragging her
to commit sexual assault and not limited to voyeurism are acts that would come
under the ambit of outraging the modesty of a female.
Insulting
Modesty
The word
‘insult’ refers to a situation where a woman is made to feel ashamed of her sexual
dignity i.e. lowering the sexual honour of a woman in her own eyes. It may be
done by passing sexual obscene remarks or making such gestures, sounds or
showing sexual objects to her.
The modesty
of a woman is insulted without actually touching her but by uttering any word,
making any sound or gesture or exhibiting any object which has a sexual
connotation with the intention that it be heard, seen or intrudes upon the
privacy of such woman. If a person with an object to insulting the modesty of a
woman exposes private parts of his body to her or uses obscene words or
exhibits obscene drawings he shall be liable for the offence of insulting the
modesty of a woman. However, the offender himself doesn’t need to personally
exhibit the object; he may employ an agent for the same.
References:
1) Outraging modesty of a woman [S. 354]
2) Sexual Offences in IPC: Outraging Modesty, Disrobing, Voyeurism, and Stalking
3) Case study on outraging modesty of women
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