Outraging Your Modesty Is A Crime

INTRODUCTION
'Modesty' a word which is used to show someone's behavioural attribute, can be very different when it comes in the book related with various crimes. Section 354 of Indian Penal Code deals with "Assault or Criminal Force to woman with an intent to outrage her modesty." Here, outraging a woman's modesty which is an essential attribute to her would be considered a crime.

THREE ESSENTIALS OF THE CRIME

1. that the assault must be on a woman,
2. that the accused must have used criminal force on her,
3. that the criminal force must have been used on the woman intending thereby to outrage her modesty.

MEANING OF MODESTY

Modesty in Section 354 of IPC is an attribute associated with female human beings as a class. It is a virtue which attaches to a female owing to her sex. So any aasult like this would mean an attack on a woman's modesty which is nothing but sexual attribute of hers.

FEW NOTABLE CASES AND JUDGEMENTS

1. Ram Kripal s/o Shyam Lal Charmakar v. State of Madhya Pradesh
The act of pulling a woman, removing her saree, coupled with a request for sexual intercourse, is such as would be an outrage to the modesty of a woman, and knowledge, that modesty is likely to be outraged is sufficient to constitute the offence.

2. Raju Pandurang Mahale v. State of Maharashtra

It was held that what constitute an outrage to female modesty is nowhere defined . The culpable intention of the accused is the crux of the matter.

The ultimate test for ascertaining whether modesty has been outraged is whether the action of the offender is such as could be perceived as one which is capable of shocking the sense of decency of a woman.

3. State of Punjab v. Major Singh

A female child of 7 years and 1/2 months was held to be a woman and as the accused had caused injury to the private parts, he was held guilty under this section.

CONCLUSION

Outraging someone's modesty is crime in eyes of law. Though not mentioned about outraging a man's modesty here, it doesn't mean that the attack on the modesty of a boy or a man is not a crime. It is also a crime and dealt as such in some other laws like POCSO. It is an act of shocking someone's decency which is directly related to a person's sexuality. Though we don't have much cases of sexual assault on men, we still have noted judgements on the fewer cases whatsover.