Section 75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) defines and punishes sexual harassment. It is the direct successor of the well-known Section 354A of the Indian Penal Code, carried into the new code on 1 July 2024 without substantive change - the official comparison table records "no change".
What Section 75 BNS provides
A man committing any of the following acts commits sexual harassment:
- physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures;
- a demand or request for sexual favours;
- showing pornography against the will of a woman; or
- making sexually coloured remarks.
The punishment is tiered. For the first three acts, the section prescribes rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or fine, or both. For sexually coloured remarks, the punishment is imprisonment up to one year, or fine, or both.
The essentials in plain language
- The offence is defined as committed by a man; the first three limbs centre on conduct that is unwelcome - consent and context are at the heart of these cases.
- A single incident can be enough; the section does not require a repeated course of conduct.
- The remarks limb carries a lighter maximum sentence than the contact, demand and pornography limbs.
How a Section 75 case proceeds
According to the First Schedule classification in our comparison data, the offence is cognizable - the police can register an FIR and investigate without a magistrate's order - and non-bailable, triable by the Court of Session.Complaints commonly arise from workplaces, educational institutions, public places, transport and online interactions; the same facts can also attract other provisions depending on what exactly happened, which is a matter for case-specific advice.
Workplace harassment: the criminal and civil tracks
Section 75 BNS is the criminal route. Separately, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (the POSH Act) provides a civil, employer-driven mechanism - Internal Committees, time-bound inquiries and service-level consequences. The two tracks operate independently: a woman may complain to the Internal Committee, to the police, or to both.
What changed from Section 354A IPC
Nothing of substance. Section 354A was itself a relatively recent provision - inserted into the IPC by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 on the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee - and the BNS has simply renumbered it as Section 75 without altering the definition or the punishment. Case law developed under Section 354A IPC continues to apply. For offences committed before 1 July 2024 the charge remains under Section 354A IPC; from that date it is Section 75 BNS.
Leading Supreme Court judgment
- Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997) - laid down the first binding workplace sexual-harassment guidelines in the absence of legislation; the ground it opened is now occupied by the POSH Act on the civil side and Section 75 BNS on the criminal side.
Facing harassment, or accused under this section? These cases turn on prompt, precise advice - what to document, where to complain, and how the criminal and workplace tracks interact. Talk to a lawyer in your city or browse advocates in the Free Law directory.