The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013

And say what the Committee said about marital rape. It recommended that the exception be removed, on the ground that a marital relationship is not a valid defence, and Parliament retained it. The exception survives in Exception 2 to section 63 of the Sanhita, and the matter is before the Supreme Court, so state the position and not an outcome.

What the Act changed

Rape, section 375 as amended, now section 63. Four descriptions of the act, covering penile penetration into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus, insertion of an object or a part of the body, manipulation of a part of the body to cause penetration, and the application of the mouth. Seven descriptions of the circumstances: against her will; without her consent; consent obtained by fear of death or hurt; consent given in the mistaken belief that the man is her husband; consent given when unable to understand by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication; with or without consent when she is under eighteen; and when she is unable to communicate consent.

Consent, the Explanation. Consent means an unequivocal voluntary agreement, given by words, gestures or any form of verbal or non-verbal communication, communicating a willingness to participate in the specific sexual act; and a woman who does not physically resist shall not by reason only of that fact be regarded as consenting. That sentence is the most quoted in the Act.

Age of consent. Raised from sixteen to EIGHTEEN, which is why intercourse with a person under eighteen is rape irrespective of consent, and why POCSO and this provision overlap.

Punishment, section 376, now section 64. The minimum for rape was raised from seven years to ten; the aggravated categories were expanded to include a police officer, a public servant, a member of the armed forces, the management or staff of a jail, remand home, hospital or women's or children's institution, a relative, guardian or teacher or a person in a position of trust, rape during communal or sectarian violence, rape of a pregnant woman, of a woman under sixteen, of a woman incapable of consent, and rape causing grievous bodily harm or disfigurement.

Section 376A, now section 66. Causing death or a persistent vegetative state in the course of the offence: minimum twenty years to imprisonment for the remainder of natural life, or death.

Section 376B, now section 67. Intercourse by a husband with his wife living separately, without her consent: two to seven years.

Section 376C, now section 68. Intercourse by a person in authority abusing that position.

Section 376D, now section 70. Gang rape, with a minimum of twenty years.

Section 376E, now section 71. Repeat offenders: imprisonment for the remainder of natural life, or death.

Sections 326A and 326B, now section 124. Acid attack and the attempt to commit it, with fine to meet the victim's medical expenses, payable to the victim.

Section 354A, now section 75. Sexual harassment as a criminal offence.

Section 354B, now section 76. Assault or criminal force with intent to disrobe.

Section 354C, now section 77. Voyeurism.

Section 354D, now section 78. Stalking, physical and electronic.

And section 166A of the Penal Code. A public servant who fails to record information about the cognizable offences of sexual violence commits an offence, which is the provision aimed at non-registration of a first information report. Its counterpart is in the Sanhita's chapter on offences by public servants.

The procedural and evidentiary changes

Recording the statement. The Code of Criminal Procedure was amended so that the information about certain sexual offences is recorded by a WOMAN police officer, and that the statement of a victim who is temporarily or permanently mentally or physically disabled is recorded at her residence or a place of her choice, in the presence of an interpreter or special educator, and videographed.

Medical examination. Section 164A provides for the examination of a rape victim by a registered medical practitioner with her consent, and the 2013 changes made the report's contents specific. The so-called two-finger test has been disapproved by the Supreme Court and the guidelines of the Ministry of Health direct against it.

In camera trial and the complainant's character. Trial in camera, and the removal from section 155(4) of the Evidence Act of the provision allowing the character of the prosecutrix to be put in issue. Section 146 of the Evidence Act was amended so that in a prosecution for rape it is not permissible to put questions in cross-examination about the general immoral character or previous sexual experience of the victim.

Section 114A of the Evidence Act, carried forward from 1983 and extended: where intercourse is proved and the question is consent, and the woman states in her evidence that she did not consent, the court SHALL PRESUME that she did not.

And the free treatment obligation. All hospitals, public and private, must provide free first aid or medical treatment to victims of the offences under sections 326A, 376, 376A to 376E, and must immediately inform the police; failure is an offence.

The criticisms

The marital rape exception survived. The Committee recommended removal; Parliament kept it. The single most important thing to say about the Act.

The age of consent at eighteen. Criticised for criminalising consensual adolescent sexual activity, and it interacts with POCSO, which is [How Far POCSO Has Worked].

The offences are gender-specific. Rape can only be committed by a man against a woman, and the Committee's broader recommendations on gender-neutral drafting were not carried through.

The death penalty was expanded. The Committee opposed it; the Act allowed it in section 376A and section 376E, and the 2018 amendment went further.

Sanction for the security forces. The Committee recommended that the requirement of prior sanction be removed for sexual offences by members of the armed forces; it was not.

And the enforcement point. The Act redefined offences; it did not staff a police station, shorten a trial, or change what happens to a complainant in a courtroom. Between 2013 and now the reported numbers rose, which is consistent with better reporting and with more crime, and the honest answer says the data cannot distinguish them.

A worked example

MU's 2019 question uses the old numbers: "Explain the changes brought about by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 to sections 375, 376, 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code." Answer it in 2026.

Open with the translation. Say in one sentence that the Penal Code was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 with effect from 1 July 2024, that the 2013 amendments were carried into it substantially unchanged, and that the old numbers correspond to sections 63, 64, 74 and 79.

Section 375, now 63. The four acts, the seven descriptions, the Explanation on consent, the age at eighteen, and the surviving marital rape exception.

Section 376, now 64. The minimum raised to ten years, and the expanded aggravated list; with sections 376A to 376E now sections 66, 67, 68, 70 and 71.

Section 354, now 74. Untouched in substance, but joined by the four new offences that were inserted after it: 354A harassment, now 75; 354B disrobing, now 76; 354C voyeurism, now 77; and 354D stalking, now 78.

Section 509, now 79. Word, gesture or act intended to insult modesty, and the addition of intrusion upon privacy.

Then the assessment. The Act moved the law from the body to the environment, from resistance to communication, and from the general offence to the named one; and it left the marital rape exception, the sanction requirement and gender-specific drafting where it found them.

What this does NOT mean

It does not mean the Act created the criminal law of sexual offences. 1983 did much of the work, and 2013 built on it.

It does not mean the Verma Committee's report is law. It is a report; what matters is which recommendations Parliament took.

It does not mean the amendments are now in the Penal Code. They are in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and answering in Penal Code numbers alone in 2026 is a mistake.

And it does not mean harsher punishment was the Committee's answer. It was against the death penalty and against chemical castration, and said so.

Quick revision

Trigger: Delhi, December 2012. Committee on Amendments to Criminal Law, Justice J.S. Verma with Justice Leila Seth and Gopal Subramanium, constituted 23 December 2012, reported 23 January 2013. Act of 2013: rape redefined, four acts and seven descriptions; the Explanation on CONSENT as an unequivocal voluntary agreement communicated by words, gestures or non-verbal communication, and non-resistance is not consent; age of consent to eighteen; minimum for rape raised to ten years; new sections 376A death or vegetative state, 376B husband during separation, 376C person in authority, 376D gang rape, 376E repeat offenders; new offences 326A and 326B acid attack, 354A sexual harassment, 354B disrobing, 354C voyeurism, 354D stalking; section 166A on non-recording of information by a public servant; procedural changes on recording by a woman officer, the disabled victim's statement, in camera trial, the removal of character evidence, section 114A's presumption, and free treatment by all hospitals. Now sections 63 to 79 and 124 of the Sanhita.

Rejected: removal of the marital rape exception; removal of sanction for the security forces; the recommendation against the death penalty; the AFSPA amendment; and the electoral disqualification proposals. Criticisms: the exception, the age of consent, gender-specific drafting, the expansion of the death penalty, and the fact that definitions were changed and enforcement was not.

Test yourself

1. Who constituted the Verma Committee, when did it report, and who sat on it? It was constituted on 23 December 2012 as the Committee on Amendments to Criminal Law, chaired by Justice J.S. Verma with Justice Leila Seth and Gopal Subramanium, and it reported on 23 January 2013.

2. Quote the Explanation on consent introduced in 2013. That consent means an unequivocal voluntary agreement, given by words, gestures or any form of verbal or non-verbal communication, communicating a willingness to participate in the specific sexual act; and that a woman who does not physically resist is not by reason only of that fact to be regarded as consenting.

3. Name four recommendations of the Committee that Parliament did not accept. The removal of the marital rape exception; the removal of the requirement of prior sanction to prosecute members of the security forces for sexual offences and their trial by ordinary criminal courts; the recommendation against the death penalty and against chemical castration; and the amendment of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

4. Translate the 2013 insertions into the Sanhita. Sections 326A and 326B become section 124; 354A becomes 75; 354B becomes 76; 354C becomes 77; 354D becomes 78; 375 becomes 63; 376 becomes 64; 376A becomes 66; 376B becomes 67; 376C becomes 68; 376D becomes 70; 376E becomes 71; and 509 becomes 79.

5. State the significance of the Act in three sentences. It moved the criminal law from punishing acts done to a woman's body to punishing conduct that makes her environment unusable, by naming stalking, voyeurism, disrobing and harassment as offences. It replaced resistance with communication as the test of consent, and raised the age of consent to eighteen. And it left untouched the marital rape exception, the sanction requirement for the security forces, and the enforcement machinery on which every one of the new offences depends.