One year of new criminal laws: No law for sexual offences against men, animals yet

Exactly a year after the Centre enforced a complete overhaul of India’s colonial-era criminal laws, the absence of a replacement for Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) continues to cast a long shadow over the ambitious legal reform.

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While the Supreme Court in 2018 decriminalized consensual same-sex relations between adults, Section 377 continued to criminalize non-consensual acts such as sodomy, bestiality, and sexual violence against men and transgender persons.

Its complete removal in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the IPC on July 1, 2024, has left no dedicated legal protection for these vulnerable groups. “There is no specific provision now to deal with unnatural sexual assault against men or transgenders, or even acts of bestiality. This seems like a glaring oversight," Delhi-based lawyer Advocate Siddharth Malkania said.

While rape laws under the BNS remain largely gender-specific, activists say this legal vacuum exposes men, animals, and transgender individuals to unchecked abuse with limited recourse.

Malkaniya said that the omitting of section 377 from the BNS has created a vacuum in the law. "The Supreme Court in Navtej Singh Johar vs UOI decriminalised consensual same-sex relations under Section 377, while retaining it for non-consensual acts, offences against minors, and bestiality. But the BNS, 2023, has gone beyond the judgment by completely removing the section, creating a legal vacuum for acts like bestiality," said Malkania.

Animal welfare groups, too, have raised red flags. “Bestiality is no longer explicitly punishable under the new laws. Earlier, Section 377 provided at least a legal route for action. Now there’s ambiguity,” said an animal rights activist.

Even as the government claimed the new laws would usher in a modern, citizen-centric justice system, critics argue that the failure to replace Section 377 is emblematic of broader implementation lapses.

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), replacing the CrPC and Indian Evidence Act respectively, promised faster investigations, digital FIRs, community service for minor crimes, and forensic-backed prosecutions. But a year later, ground-level realities present a different picture.

While timelines for investigation and trial have been introduced — 60 days to frame charges, 14 days to supply documents, 90 days for case updates — there are few enforcement mechanisms. "Meeting deadlines always remains a challenge. These reforms sound great on paper, but we lack manpower to meet them,” a police officer said.

The new laws have rightly emphasized forensic evidence, mandating crime scene videography and expert visits for serious offences. However, the sudden surge in demand has left forensic labs overwhelmed. "Compared to old times, the cases we have forensically examined shot up exponentially. Still we managed to keep everything under control," a source in the Crime Scene Management at Delhi’s Forensic Science Laboratory said.

Digital justice is another cornerstone, but most police stations, courtrooms, and prisons — especially in rural areas — lack basic internet access. Even terms like “digital record” and “electronic record” are inconsistently used, leading to confusion during trials. Experts feel that unless the government urgently plugs loopholes such as the Section 377 vacuum and invests in digital and forensic infrastructure, the promise of a modern justice system may remain unfulfilled.