Indian penal law does not recognise necrophilia as an offence, SC affirms
The top court was hearing an appeal by the Karnataka government challenging the high court’s decision to acquit an accused of rape charges
The Supreme Court on Monday held that current penal laws do not allow for the invocation of rape or unnatural offences against a deceased person as it affirmed a Karnataka high court ruling that necrophilia - sexual intercourse with a corpse - is not recognised as an offence.

According to a bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, it is for parliament to consider and enact legislation addressing the issue and a court cannot punish someone for an act not recognised as a criminal offence under the existing penal code.
The top court was hearing an appeal by the Karnataka government challenging the high court’s decision to acquit an accused of rape charges after he had engaged in sexual intercourse with a woman’s body following her murder.
The trial court had convicted the accused for both murder and rape, but the high court ruled in May 2023 that necrophilia did not fall within the scope of either rape or unnatural offences.
Refusing to interfere with the high court’s judgment, the Supreme Court observed that the ruling was legally sound and that the state could make necessary representation to parliament if it wanted suitable amendments.
During the proceedings, Karnataka’s additional advocate general Aman Panwar argued that the term ‘body’ in Section 375(c) of the Indian Penal Code (rape) should be interpreted to include a dead body and that the lack of consent from a deceased person should constitute rape. However, the Supreme Court reiterated that such an interpretation was beyond judicial purview and that it is only for parliament to address this gap.
The Karnataka high court, in its judgment, had clarified that the statutory definition of rape and unnatural offences applies only when the victim is a living person, while the Indian penal law makes it clear that the dead body cannot be called a human or person.
Even as the high court acknowledged that sexual intercourse with a corpse constitutes necrophilia -- a psychosexual disorder classified under the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) -- it ruled that the absence of legal provisions criminalising necrophilia prevented it from convicting the accused on rape charges.
The high court had also expressed concern over the vulnerability of dead bodies, particularly in hospital mortuaries, urging the central government to either incorporate a suitable provision under the existing laws or introduce a new provision explicitly penalising necrophilia, following the example of countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
“It is high time for the central government, in order to maintain the right to dignity of the dead, to amend the provisions of Section 377 of IPC (unnatural offences) to include the dead body of any man, woman, or animal, or to introduce a separate provision as an offense against a dead woman as necrophilia or sadism,” it had said.
A December 2024 ruling by the Chhattisgarh high court endorsed this view, as it held that while rape of a dead body is one of the most horrendous crimes, it does not legally amount to rape since a victim must be alive for such a conviction.
The Chhattisgarh high court emphasised that dignity and fair treatment apply not only to the living but also to the deceased, yet acknowledged that current law does not prescribe punishment for sexual assault on a corpse.
