Legal Provisions of Section 374 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Unlawful compulsory labour:
This section makes unlawful compulsory labour a punishable offence. It states that whoever unlawfully compels any person against his or her will, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to one year, or with fine, or with both.
Image Source: nzcatholic.org.nz
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The victim must be unlawfully compelled by the offender to labour and this compulsion must be against the will of the victim. The victim may be a man or a woman of any age. The provision is intended to check forced labour.
In State of Gujarat v. Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat, the Supreme Court held that imposition of hard labour on prisoners undergoing rigorous imprisonment under section 53 is legal but hard labour cannot be imposed on prisoners undergoing simple imprisonment nor on under-trial internees nor on those who have been kept in jails as preventive measures.
The offence under this section is cognizable, bailable and compoundable, and is triable by any magistrate.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Sexual Offences
Sections 375 to 376-D of the Code deal with sexual offences under the chapter of offences affecting human body, and, therefore, this sub-heading. Previously, this part of the Indian Penal Code consisted of the offence of rape under section 375 and its punishment under section 376, and so it was sub-headed ‘Of Rape’.
However, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1983 replaced the old sub-heading ‘Of Rape’ by ‘Sexual Offences’, amended the definition of rape in section 375, the punishment of rape in section 376, and created four new offences not amounting to rape under sections 376-A, 376-B, 376-C and 376-D because of which the old sub-heading ‘Of Rape’ had to make way, for the new sub-heading ‘Sexual Offences.’