The Kerala High Court recently observed that a woman cannot be charged with sexual harassment under the Indian Penal Code section 345A even if the alleged offence was committed against another woman, Bar and Bench reported on Saturday.

Justice A Badharudeen made the observation on a plea seeking to quash criminal proceedings initiated by a woman against her in-laws in a marital cruelty case.

The woman has alleged that she was sexually harassed by her sister-in-law. However, the High Court observed that Section 354A of the Indian Penal Code, which addresses sexual harassment, applies only to acts committed by men.

“In order to attract offence under Section 354A of Indian Penal Code, the overt acts dealt under Section 354A(1), (2) and (3), should be the volition of ‘a man’”, the court noted. “So the legislature diligently used the term ‘a man’ instead of ‘any person’ in the statutory provision and the legislative intent is to exclude woman/women from the purview of Section 354A.”

The Indian Penal Code was the criminal code of India from 1862 until December 2023, when it was replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Section 75 of the new law retains the same definition of sexual harassment as the old one.

The woman who filed the marital cruelty case accused her mother-in-law of trying to harm her by tampering with the gas stove and hindering her studies. She also accused her sister-in-law of coercing her into inappropriate sexual activities.

Criminal proceedings were initiated against her husband and in-laws under provisions of the Indian Penal Code related to sexual harassment (section 345A) and “offence of cruelty to a married woman” (section 498A).

The woman’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law then approached the High Court to have the criminal charges against them quashed.

Their counsel claimed that there were no allegations against them to substantiate the charges of marital cruelty and argued that women cannot be booked for sexual harassment under section 354A of the Indian Penal Code.

The court subsequently quashed the sexual harassment charges but found that the woman’s other allegations warranted that her in-laws be tried for cruelty under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.