New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to interfere in a petition against Section 375 of the IPC on the ground that India’s rape law is not gender-neutral, saying that “this may not be the right stage to intervene in the matter.”The petitioner had sought to declare the law violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the constitution as the definition of rape in Section 375 of the IPC does not account for gender-neutrality, LiveLaw reported.According to Times Now, a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul heard the plea filed by NGO Criminal Justice Society of India.The law in its current form only recognises women as victims and men as perpetrators. It does not take into account non-consensual sexual encounters inflicted by a woman on another woman, by a man on another man, on a transgender by another transgender or on a man by a woman.The sexual assault law, which was amended in 2013, widened the definition of rape but did not make any changes to include men or transgenders as victims under the law.The petition thus stated that not recognising male and transgender rape has impacted the ability of victims to acknowledge their own victimisation.Even while observing there was merit in the present petition, the Supreme Court has put the onus entirely on parliament and the Centre to enact the necessary legislation for making rape gender neutral. The bench further ruled that just because Supreme Court had partially struck down Section 377 to decriminalise homosexuality, it did not mean that the apex court could step in to make rape law gender neutral. The issue, the court observed, is “entirely in parliament’s domain.”Also read: When ‘No’ is Not ‘No’ in LawAccording to the LiveLaw report, the petition stated that the need of the hour was to break the “silence on the issue of male and transgender rape” as well as question “social structures that glorify machismo, reduce men and transgenders to stereotypes and force them to mask their feelings.”Urging the court not to view rape as “penile-vaginal intercourse,” the petitioner observed that international law has moved beyond such a limited definition of rape.The petition drew attention to the acute lack of data on incidents of rape of males and transgenders because only sexual assault of a woman is considered a crime.“As for transgenders, their voices are curbed because of non-acceptance and societal pressure. On the other hand, the concept of masculinity and male vanity prevent male victims from coming forth and reporting such crimes. Importantly, in the absence of legal recourse or remedy under law, there is no provision for any person except a woman to report rape or sexual assault,” the petition stated, as per LiveLaw.