After series of incidents of sexual assault against women and recent occurrence of Munirka/Nirbhaya gang rape in Delhi stirred the conscience of people and compels the government on rethinking of recognition of offences against women. Munirka/Nirbhaya gang rape case has been catalyst of reform in sexual assault for woman and has been an eye opening for the government and for the people which led to the overhauling of entire criminal justice system.
Justice Verma Committee was established, in the wake of Munirka Gang Rape, for making recommendation to bring about change in criminal provisions dealing with sexual offences especially relating to rape laws. The committee came up with its report on 23rd January, 2013 which proposed codification…show more content… At present it has become a burning issue with the increase in the number of cases and its aggravated form of brutality. Stalking is one of the forms of sexual harassment and widely committed against women than men. In India, stalking was made a punishable offence in IPC in April 2013 by criminal law amendment Act, 2013. Within a short duration of nine month after the enactment of law on stalking, 916 cases of stalking were registered by the Delhi Police .
According to Justice Verma Committee Report on Amendments to Criminal Law, 2013 “Stalking is matters of serious concern – not only because of the physical, emotional and psychological trauma which they engender in the victim, but also because these are practices which are being tolerated by a society ostensibly wedded to the rule of…show more content… Such as a Delhi University student was shot dead by her stalker near her college premises in Dhaula Kuan in 2011. However, now, women are coming forward to register their complaint relating to stalking. Pinky Anand, senior advocate, expressed that
“Cases like stalking if not tackled immediately, can lead to heinous offences like rape or physical assault” .
Lorraine Sheridan, psychologist at the University of Leicester, in association with Network for Surviving Stalking has conducted research on how victims of stalking are affected. According to Sheridan (2010), “there are different reasons for stalking, with no set rules. Most stalkers know that it is wrong but want to continue for various reasons. For example, the stalker may crave for power, seek revenge or believe they should be with the person they are stalking” .
There has been anti-stalking laws in other countries like United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia etc. In USA, California was the first state to make stalking punishable in 1990. But now, all states in USA have anti-stalking laws. Though there is no uniformity in definition of stalking and can vary from state to state and country and state. However, the U.S law define stalking as stalking “as an intentional pattern of repeated or unwanted pursuit that a reasonable person would consider threatening or fear inducing” . Australia