Gender Inequality in Gender-Based Crime Legislation: An Analysis of Legal Exclusion of Non-Female Victims in India’s Justice System

The concept of gender sexual violence covers a wide range of offences that are sexual like sexual assault, rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, etc. The laws regulating these offences are made keeping in mind that only a man can commit such offences against a woman as that is what our society has been post the Vedic age. The existence of this paradigm in our minds is so strong that its footprints are even visible in our legal framework which can be seen by focusing on provisions relating to sexual violence where language denotes only a man can sexually violate a woman. This is evident in various legislations which penalize crimes against women, like the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023), the Protection Of Women Against Sexual Harassment Act 2013, The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, etc. But in present times, these crimes are not just limited to women, be they as offenders or victims. With this ever-evolving society and the legalization of third genders, the existing legal regime seems biased and fails to provide justice/remedy in cases beyond the original line of thinking. Thus, it has been observed that gender role specification has introduced rigidity which breaks the law of reality and leaves new transposing/ redefining concepts of gender and sexual identification out of the purview of sexual violence (gender-based crimes). However, this gender role specification in legal provisions is not just limited to sexual offences but like the language of sexual offences targets men similarly their language is also gender specific and focuses on protecting women only. Therefore, this paper attempts to highlight the gender biasness present in the legislation concerning gender-based crimes depicting the social mentality leaving the other sections of the society, like the male gender and third genders vulnerable and without protection. The paper will be doctrinal and critical.