A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday held that the definition of rape contained in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code will take in sexual assaults, including the sexual acts committed between thighs of the victim.
The Bench led by Justice K.Vinod Chandran, while dealing with an appeal in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case, observed that “Section 375 takes in sexual assaults beyond penile penetration into vagina, urethra, anus, and mouth, the known orifices in the human body to which such penetration was imaginably possible”.
The court observed that “any part of the body of such woman, as mentioned in Section 375(c) of the IPC, brings within its ambit a penile sexual act committed between the thighs held together; which do not qualify to be called an orifice.”
