New Delhi: The Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday gave its nod to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill 2026, and added amendments regarding digital sexual harassment of women and protection of identity of acid attack victims, as originally proposed in the SHAKTI Criminal Laws (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill 2020.
The Bill was presented by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. It amended section 75 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which lists out various acts that amount to offences of sexual harassment, media reports said.
Under the amendment, sexual harassment via email, social media, or any other electronic or digital means, including offensive communication and threats to upload or share photographs, audio, or video, etc, is now covered in the BNS section.
What did the Bill say?
The Bill underlined that the government thought it apt to include these acts of sexual harassment and provide penalties and punishments.
The Bill noted: “These amendments were proposed by the SHAKTI Criminal Laws (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill, 2020 (L. A. Bill No. LI of 2020) to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (45 of 1860), which is repealed by the said Sanhita. As the above-referred provisions are not contained in the said Sanhita, these amendments are proposed.”
“Section 72 of the said Sanhita provides for offences of disclosure of identity of victims of certain sexual offences and punishment therefor. Section 124 of the said Sanhita provides punishment for the offence of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid, which is not included in Section 72. The Government of Maharashtra, therefore, considers it expedient to provide punishment for disclosure of identity of the victim of acid attack by amending the said Section 72 suitably,” the Bill pointed out.
Proposed as the Shakti Act, 2020, the Bill has provisions to increase penalties, including the death penalty for rape, fines up to Rs 10 lakh, and quicker probe and faster disposal of cases.
The 2020 Bill was sent to the President of India for approval but sent back to the state after the BNS was rolled out.