"Posthumous Dignity and Legal Protection: The Necessity of Criminalizing Necrophilia in Bangladesh and India"

Necrophilia is a severe violation of human dignity, and at the same time, it is such a topic that has not been discussed enough in Bangladesh and India. Although the practice gets a unanimous condemnation by culture and religion, neither of the jurisdictions has made the act a criminal offense. The Penal Code (Section 297), of Bangladesh, punishes indignity to corpses and trespass in burial grounds but not sexual abuse of dead bodies. In India, the Indian Penal Code and its replacement the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita include the same loopholes and Indian courts have made it clear that only alive people can be victims of rape and unnatural offences. Such a failure of imperfect information undermines deterrence obstacles to prosecution and comports a misconceived notion of posthumous dignity that emerges in the human rights law. With the help of comparative legal approach and cultural perspective, this article thus advocates the explicit criminalization of necrophilia where at least there should be clear-cut statutory definitions, appropriate proportional punishments, and enforcement procedures to protect the sanctity of the dead and align policies of any nation with that of the emerging investigations of justice and human rights in the world.