Dubious Posts in Social Media Mislead Society About Anti-rape Laws

. By T.V. Antony Raj

I have repeatedly said in my posts on my website “Impressions ~ of what comes to my mind” and in my Facebook page not to believe everything posted on social media websites such as Facebook. Here is one such post with dubious information that is going viral on the social media:

.
The above message that I came across recently on Facebook was an outcome of the Delhi gang rape of December 16, 2012 that incited people nationwide, from every strata of our civil society, to demand for strict anti-rape laws. Everyone started exploring the existing laws for punishing the rapists under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Currently, a flood of Short Message Service (SMS) and social medium posts carrying information about a “new anti-rape law” being passed are misguiding people, despite the disclaim by legal professionals and members of the judiciary to the contrary. Even educated folk presume that it is their bounden duty to circulate these erroneous messages to all their friends thinking that it is a major development with the country’s leaders finally caring about the female population in our society.

This Section 233 in The Indian Penal Code, 1860 has nothing to do with “Rape”. In fact, it deals with counterfeiting coins. It states:

Making or selling instrument for counterfeiting coin.– Whoever makes or mends, or performs any part of the process of making or mending, or buys, sells or disposes of, any die or instrument, for the purpose of being used, or knowing or having reason to believe that it is intended to be used, for the purpose of counterfeiting coin, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extended to three years, and shall also be liable to fine.