Overview
- Both houses of the Maharashtra legislature passed the amendment unanimously on Wednesday, and the bill will now be sent to the Centre for assent.
- The law makes it a crime to reveal the name, address, or any detail that can identify an acid attack survivor, closing a privacy gap in the national code.
- The amendment expands sexual harassment to cover email, social media, and phone-based abuse, including threats to post real or morphed images, deepfakes, doxxing, and repeated unwanted contact.
- Online sexual harassment under the new provision carries up to three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine, giving police clear grounds to act on digital abuse.
- After the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced the IPC in 2024, a DGP-led panel in June 2025 found two Shakti Bill protections missing, prompting this targeted fix as lawmakers also pressed for a study on misuse and possible gender‑neutral safeguards.