Question Discussion & Solution

The correct answer is 20th September 1994.

• Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act was enacted on 20th September 1994.

Key Points

• Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994:
  • An Act to provide for the prohibition of sex selection, before or after conception, and for the regulation of prenatal diagnostic techniques for the purposes of detecting genetic abnormalities or metabolic disorders or chromosomal abnormalities or certain congenital malformations or sex-linked disorders and for the prevention of their misuse for sex determination leading to female foeticide; and, for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. ​

Additional Information

• Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to stop female foeticides and arrest the declining sex ratio in India.
  • The act banned prenatal sex determination.
  • Every genetic counselling centre, genetic laboratory or genetic clinic engaged in counselling or conducting pre-natal diagnostics techniques, like in vitro fertilisation (IVF) with the potential of sex selection (Preimplantation genetic diagnosis) before and after conception comes under the preview of the PCPNDT Act and are banned.

The correct answer is The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

• The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 came into force on 1st November 2007 in India.
• In October 2017, Supreme Court of India gave a landmark judgement criminalising sex with a child bride, hence removing an exception in India’s criminal jurisprudence which had until then accorded legal protection to men who raped their minor wives.

Key Points

• Section 2 of the Act contains definitions:
  • Child means a person who, if a male, has not completed twenty-one years of age, and if a female, has not completed eighteen years of age.
  • Child marriage means a marriage to which either of the contracting parties is a child.
  • Contracting party in relation to a marriage means either of the parties whose marriage is or is about to be thereby solemnised.
  • Child marriage: A marriage to which either party is a child.

• IPC Section 354 B provides safety and punishes the offender for compelling a woman to be naked, and shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine

The correct answer is Domestic violence.

• It is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to protect women from domestic violence.
• It was brought into force by the Indian government on 26 October 2006.
• The Act provides for the first time in Indian law a definition of domestic violence, with this definition being broad and including not only physical violence, but also other forms of violence such as emotional/verbal, sexual, and economic abuse.
• It is a civil law meant primarily for protection orders and not meant to be enforced criminally.
• In October 2016, the Supreme Court has made a verdict to delete the words “adult male” before the word ‘person’ in Section 2(q) of the Act making it gender-neutral.

Important Points

• Salient features of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005:
  • Includes physical and mental ill-treatment.
  • Primarily meant for the protection of wife or female live-in partners.
  • Law also extends to sisters, widows, or mothers.
  • Harassment in the form of dowry demands also included in this law.
  • Gives women the right to secure housing.
  • The court can also issue protection orders that prevent the abuser to harass the women by acts at her workplace.
  • The act proposes the appointment of protection officers and NGOs.
  • A breach of a protection order is a non-bailable offence. 

The correct answer is Sexual intercourse by a husband on his wife during separation.

• Section 376B in The Indian Penal Code:
  • Sexual intercourse by a husband on his wife during separation: Whoever has sex with his wife, who is living separately, whether under a decree of separation or otherwise, without her consent, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than two years but which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Additional Information

• Section 376A: Punishment for causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state of the victim.
• Section 376D:  Gang rape
• Section 376: Punishment for rape.