New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) The government is in the process of defining 'honour killings' and widening the definition of sexual assault, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in the Lok Sabha Tuesday.

'We are in the process of defining the honour killing,' Chidambaram said while replying to questions related to the caste panchayats' controversial rulings on marriages in some parts of the country.

The government had stated in the Rajya Sabha earlier that a proposal to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to deal with honour killings was under consideration.

The government, however, did not give any timeframe by which the amendment would be effected.

'We are looking at a broader definition of sexual assault,' Chidambaram said when asked about the government's reported decision to amend the IPC, replacing the word 'rape' with 'sexual assault' in the existing law in order to broaden the ambit of crimes covered under the sections and make the provisions gender neutral.

Quoting home ministry officials, the reports said 'making sexual assault 'gender neutral' will imply that the relevant sections of IPC can be slapped on accused of any gender who has committed the crime'.