Petition seeks HC directive to recognise rape of men as offence

A writ petition was filed with the High Court yesterday, seeking its order on the government to amend the relevant law treating the violation of males as rape.

Dr Soumen Bhowmick, a social worker, Supreme Court lawyer Tasmia Nuhaiya Ahmed and Dr Masum Billah, director of human rights organisation Empowerment through Law of the Common People, submitted the petition as a public interest litigation to the HC.

In the petition, they requested the HC to order the government to amend Section 375 of the Penal Code incorporating the word "person" in place "woman" .

They also urged the HC to ask the law ministry to form a committee consisting lawyers and civil society members to submit a report on the progress of amending Section 375 to the court every month.

Citing the petition, Tapas Kanti Baul, lawyer for the petitioners, told The Daily Star that under Section 375, only a woman sexually assaulted by a man is treated as rape.

Female victims can seek justice for the offence under this provision of the penal code.

But, there is no provision in the section for treating the violation of males as an offence and therefore, male victims have no scope for getting justice and remedy under the provision, he said.

Lawyer Tapas said incidents of violations of men are happening in the country, but they are not getting remedy due to shortcoming of the law.