21-year-old woman murdered, then sex with the corpse too… Supreme Court said – having sex with a corpse is not rape

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"It has been brought to our notice that in most of the Government and private hospitals, the attendants appointed to guard the mortuary, particularly of young ladies indulge in sexual intercourse with the dead body. Therefore, it is high time for the State Government to ensure that such crime is not committed so that dignity of the dead body of a lady is maintained," the Court said.

In an important decision, the Supreme Court on Tuesday (4 February 2025) refused to consider necrophilia (sexual activity with a dead body of a woman) as rape. The court said that it is not a crime under rape under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). After this, the apex court dismissed the appeal filed by the Karnataka government.

A bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that it is the job of the Parliament to examine the issue and make relevant changes in the law if necessary. The court said that the law does not consider necrophilia a crime. Therefore, it cannot interfere with the order of the High Court acquitting the accused of rape charges.

Additional Advocate General Aman Pawar, appearing for the Karnataka government, argued that the word 'body' under Section 375(c) should include a dead body as well. He said the 7th statement of the definition of rape states that a situation where the woman cannot give consent will be considered rape. Thus, here too the dead body will not be able to give consent.

Panwar said the court should interpret Section 375 liberally to include dead bodies. He also cited the apex court's 1995 judgment in Pandit Parmanand Katara vs Union of India, which said the right to respect and fair treatment should also apply to dead bodies.

He said international courts, including the Supreme Court of Tennessee in the case State vs Brobeck, have extended similar penal provisions to bring dead bodies within the ambit of rape. However, the Supreme Court bench was not convinced by the arguments of Additional Solicitor General Aman Panwar and dismissed the appeal.

Actually, this case is from Karnataka. In this case, the accused had murdered a 21-year-old woman. After this, he had sexual relations with the dead body. After this, the trial court convicted the accused of murder under section 302 of the IPC and rape under section 375 of the IPC. After this, the case went to the High Court.

Hearing this case, the Karnataka High Court said in May 2023 that necrophilia does not fall under the purview of rape under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code or the crime of unnatural sex under Section 377. Therefore, the accused cannot be held guilty of rape. After this, the High Court held the accused guilty of murder but acquitted him of the charge of rape.

The High Court said necrophilia is a 'psychological disorder' which is classified in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) under a group of disorders called 'paraphilias'. This includes paedophilia (sexual abuse of children), exhibitionism (exposing one's genitals to a stranger) and sexual masochism (feeling sexual arousal from pain, torture or humiliation).

"It has been brought to our notice that in most of the government and private hospitals, the attendants appointed to guard the mortuary, especially of young women, indulge in sexual intercourse with the dead body. Therefore, it is high time for the state government to ensure that such crime does not take place so that the dignity of the dead body of a woman is maintained," the court said.

The Karnataka High Court further said, "Unfortunately, no specific law has been made in India including the provisions of the Indian Penal Code for the purpose of preventing crimes against the dead body of a woman and protecting her rights and maintaining her dignity." The High Court asked the Central Government to make a law to include the incident of rape of dead bodies in the category of rape.

The Karnataka government challenged the High Court's decision to release the accused from the rape case in the Supreme Court. After hearing all the arguments, the Supreme Court refused to consider it as rape and rejected the Karnataka government's petition. The Supreme Court showed the way to the Parliament for a law related to this.

Credit: news.de