Explained | Necrophilia and its legal status in India

Necrophilia, the act of having sexual intercourse with a corpse, is not explicitly outlawed in Indian law

On May 31, the Karnataka High Court directed the Centre to amend existing provisions of the Indian Penal Code within six months or to introduce a separate provision altogether, criminalising the act of having sexual intercourse with the body of a dead person, known as Necrophilia.

What is Necrophilia and its broad legal status in India and the world?

The term Necrophilia finds its origins in the Greek words philios (attraction to/love) and nekros (dead body). It involves sexual attraction to and/or sexual acts with corpses, and is generally understood as a Paraphilia, or indulgence in sexual preferences that are studied as deviant, either because they "interfere with mutually satisfying sexual behavior" or because they involve "non-consensual, coercive sexual activity". It is impossible to ascertain the true prevalence of necrophilia in concrete data, as "it is often carried out in secret, with the victim unable to report the act".

Necrophiles often prefer corpses that are "not fresh", but "rather dug up from graves in a putrefied or mummified condition, with some preferring only bones". The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM5) does not specifically categorise necrophilia by assigning it a unique code, instead presents it along with several other uncommon paraphilias, under the 'Other Specified Paraphilic Disorder' section.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, which is published by the World Health Organization, too does not assign it a unique code, instead places it under the 'Other Paraphilic Disorder Involving Non-Consenting Individuals' section.

The legal status of necrophilia varies across jurisdictions, with some explicitly criminalising necrophilia under their laws. For instance, in some states in the United States, necrophilia falls under laws related to abuse of a corpse. Offenders can face severe legal consequences, including imprisonment and registration as a sex offender. However, the offence is still technically not illegal in several other US states, owing to legal loopholes.

These legal loopholes are true of India as well. There is no specific provision in the IPC explicitly outlawing Necrophilia. Although it can be understood as an "unnatural sexual act" under Section 377 ("voluntary carnal inter­course against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal") the provision does not specifically list 'corpses'. Judges presiding over cases that are brought before the courts are often forced to restrict themselves to either 'Sodomy' under Section 377 or criminalisation of trespassing on burial grounds under Section 297 [ii]. Even Section 297 is not equipped to deal with Necrophilia since it is limited to "inten­tion of wounding the feelings of any person, or of insulting the religion of any person (as they relate to cremations and funerals)..or offer{ing} any indignity to any human corpse" and does not specifically mention sexual intercourse.

Given these limitations in Indian law, the Karnataka High Court on May 31 remarked, “It is high time that the Central Government, in order to maintain right to dignity of the dead, should amend the provisions of Section 377 of IPC... to introduce a separate provision (regarding) necrophilia.. as has been done in United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa".