The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea for declaring the offences of rape, sexual assault, outraging of modesty, voyeurism and stalking in the Indian Penal Code as gender-neutral. <br/><br/>The petitioner had said, the crime of rape should be gender neutral, making a woman also punishable for the offence. <br/><br/>Rejecting the plea, the three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, it is an imaginative situation and Parliament can deal with it as per social needs. <br/><br/>It also said that law is open for change by Parliament and it cannot interfere with it.<br/><br/>The plea said that law cannot be discriminatory against men and that only a man can be punished for the offences of rape and sexual assault.