Recently in the news, there was a report on a plea that was filed by a person in the supreme court of India for the purpose of considering petitions relating to misuse of few sections of the Indian Penal code, 1860. One of such provisions was section 509 of IPC. One important contention in that Public Interest Litigation suit was that these sections, including section 509, is age-old provisions, where women had nothing to say. Other important contentions in the plea will be discussed in the following article. Also, let us look into the general offences, remedies that have been provided under that particular provision under IPC along with section 506 in this article.

Section 506 of Indian Penal code:

Let us look into the first section. Chapter 22 of the Indian Penal Code deals with Criminal Intimidation, Insult and annoyance. Specifically, section 506 deals with the punishment for the offence of criminal intimidation. But, what is the offence of criminal intimidation? It has been provided under section 503 of the Indian Penal code. The section is as follows,

“Whoever threatens another with any injury to his person, reputation or property, or to the person or reputation of anyone in whom that person is interested, with intent to cause alarm to that person, or to cause that person to do any act which he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to do any act which that person is legally entitled to do, as the means of avoiding the execution of such threat, commits criminal intimidation”. 

The punishment for the same shall be imprisonment for a period of two years or even with fine or even with both. If the threat causes death or injury or if it causes the destruction of the property, then the punishment shall be for a period of 7 years or fine or even with both.

Under the section, it is important that there is an intention to threaten, which has been caused by the offender through the form of criminal intimidation. Courts have held that threatening the victim is essential for the application of this section under IPC.

Section 509 of Indian Penal Code:

Having seen section 506 and its essential ingredients, it is important to look into one of the most debated provisions, which has also been contended to be misused several times in the petition filed by a petitioner in the Supreme Court of India.

Section 509 reiterated as follows,

“Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen, by such woman, or intrudes upon the privacy of such woman, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, and also with fine.”

It deals with any word, gesture or act, which is intended to insult the modesty of a woman. It states that if any person has any intention to insult the modesty of the woman by uttering a word or makes any sound or gesture, which are intended to be heard or seen by the woman and if such an act or gesture intrudes or intervenes into the privacy of the woman, then such person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which is not less than three years or with a fine. In simple words, if a man intends to offend the modesty of the woman through his indecent expressions or actions or even through a word, and if the woman hears or reacts to that action, then it is said that the person has committed the offence under section 509 of the Indian Penal Code.

A few of the essentials/ ingredients under section 509 are,

• There should be an intention to cause or insult the modesty of the woman,
• That insult should be uttered or made through sound or gesture with the intention of that to be heard by the woman, and this action or gesture or sound should intervene upon the privacy of the woman.

Section 509 and Article 14 of the Indian Constitution:

As mentioned earlier, one of the PILs was filed before the Supreme Court of India on the ground that these provisions are age-old and are made when the woman had no say in anything and when they have been restricted within limits. PIL stated that, like men, women today are also harassing the male community and are subjecting them to cruelty. If that is the case, the PIL questions the nature of these provisions and prays for amending these provisions according to the changing societal norms and needs. It is because of the fact that these are being misused heavily by women, especially when it comes to marriage accusations over the husband and his family, which are also increasing tremendously. Courts have stated that these women should not misguide the court for their needs. Because of this misuse, men are affected not only mentally but also socially and economically, as a society might look down on these individuals, even if they are proved to be innocent. These are the contentions made in that PIL.

These instances make us question these laws on the grounds of articles 14 and 21 as these provisions discriminate between men and women without proper nexus that is available to the men in the changing time. This led to men losing their dignity as conferred under article 21 of the Indian Constitution. One of the examples which can be cited for this is section 370 was made unconstitutional on the grounds of article 14, 21 etc., as the LGBTQ+ community have been denied of these in early days, and the same was held against the constitution. It is an example of how law changes according to changes in society. In the same way, without prejudicing the men and women, the laws should treat equally and change accordingly to changes in society and this area is required to be pondered upon by the judiciary.