Rest In Peace? The Legal Challenges Addressing Necrophilia In India

E.A. Ashwin Datha, LLM (Criminal Law), Reva University

ABSTRACT

Necrophilia is a situation when a person has a strong sexual attraction or a desire towards dead bodies. This means that such a person may engage in sexual acts with dead bodies. The High Court of Karnataka in Rangaraju vs State of Karnataka 1 at paragraph number 54 has discussed about the meaning of the Necrophilia. As per the High Court, Necrophilia is a very unusual attraction with death bodies, especially when it involves a sexual attraction towards it. Necrophilia is classified as a type of mental health disorder called a "paraphilia," which is a term used to describe unusual sexual interests or behaviors. For example, some people, instead of having normal romantic or sexual feelings towards living people, are strangely drawn to dead bodies. This means they might engage in sexual activities with dead bodies. The official handbook used by mental health professionals, called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual published by the American Psychiatric Association for the classification of mental disorders which is the DSM-IV, includes necrophilia under the category of paraphilias. However, it's listed as "not otherwise specified," which means it doesn't fit neatly into one specific category like some other paraphilias do. It's important to distinguish between people who have unusual sexual interests, like necrophilia and those who engage in normal sexual fantasies or activities. Necrophilia is usually associated with men, but there have been rare reports of women engaging in such behaviours as well. It can occur for various reasons, including curiosity, anger, or strong desires, rather than being a regular habit or sexual necessity. Through this research paper, I will dig a little deeper into the legal aspects surrounding necrophilia, exploring if our present legal systems is adequate to address this issue.