Abstract
In 2021, India crossed the threshold of the quantum of revenge porn cases, necessitating a public discourse on compartmentalizing the offence within pre-existing, yet outdated, legislations. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, these reports come at the heels of the growing image-based sexual abuse in India, exemplified by other cases of voyeurism and sextortion. Despite the increasing statistics, image- based sexual abuse, as a systematic class of sexual crimes against women and children, remains virtually unrecognized in Indian scholarship and legislation. This paper proposes a comprehensive legislative framework for the battle against image-based sexual abuse. In doing so, it classifies each element of image-based sexual abuse and traces the inadequacies in the current legislative framework available for its criminalization. It creates an extensive typology for the offence, limiting and clarifying its scope. Thereafter, it under- takes an extensive survey of the solutions adopted across the globe, primarily available in the Commonwealth. In doing so, it first analyses the different foreign criminal statutes addressing Image-Based Sexual Abuse including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. It also notes jurisprudence regarding the offence, and uses the experience of other countries to create a more ideal solution. Subsequently, it considers the civil solutions available to combat image-based sexual abuse and its critique. Most tortious and other solutions present in common law are addressed and explored. Post this, the paper moves towards proposing a statute to comprehensively tackle this heinous sexual offence. The resulting proposed structure contains preventive, penal, and non-penal provisions specifically adapted to suit the modern Indian legal jurisprudence.
Recommended Citation
Kabra, Aanchal and Gupta, Rohit
(2022)
"Carving an Indian Mosaic for Image-Based Sexual Abuse,"
National Law School of India Review: Vol. 34:
Iss.
1, Article 10.
Available at:
https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsir/vol34/iss1/10
