Delhi High Court seeks centre’s reply on petition to criminalize rape of transgender women

The Delhi High Court has asked the Central Government to respond to a PIL demanding legal recognition of rape against transgender women as a punishable offense under BNS. Senior advocate N. Hariharan appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sought a response from the Central Government on a petition demanding to include the rape of transgender women in the category of crime.

In the hearing held on Wednesday, a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela directed the Center to file an affidavit within 6 weeks.

Senior advocate appointed as amicus curiae

The court appointed senior advocate N. Hariharan to assist the court in this sensitive and legally complex matter. Hariharan has been appointed as amicus curiae, who will guide the court on legal aspects.

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What is the demand of the petition?

This PIL has been filed by Chandresh Jain. In the petition, a demand has been made to interpret Section 63 of the Indian Judicial Code (BNS) to include transgender women in it.

At present this section considers only rape of a woman by a man as a crime. Transgender persons have not got any legal protection in this.

Preliminary opinion of the court

During the hearing, the bench said that the petition sought interpretation of Chapter 5 of the BNS, which deals with sexual offenses against women and children.

The court said that prima facie it appears that it may not be legally possible to include transgender persons in the language of this chapter.

The bench also said that if transgender women could have been included in the law, then Section 376 of the IPC (now Section 63 of the BNS) would have been interpreted in such a manner.

What are the other demands in the petition?

The petition sought a direction to extend the provisions related to sexual offenses of the BNS equally to transgender persons and children. It has also been sought to ensure that transgender persons get legal protection from crimes like rape.

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This case is an important issue related to giving equal legal rights and protection to the transgender community in India. Since their status is not clear in the existing laws, this issue is being seriously considered by the court.

Now it will be important to see what stand the Central Government takes on this and in which direction the court's decision goes based on the amicus curiae's opinion.