The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing on the petitions seeking to bring marital rape under the ambit of crime. The Chief Justice said that if the arguments are not concluded this week, then a decision on this will not be possible before November 10, because next week there are Diwali holidays.
The Chief Justice is to retire on November 10, so now a new bench will hear this case. During the hearing today, Gopal Shankarnarayanan, the lawyer of one of the petitioners, said that he would take one day to present his arguments. Advocate Indira Jaisingh, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing on behalf of another petitioner, said that they would take one day each to present their arguments.
During the hearing on October 17, senior advocate Karuna Nandi, on behalf of a petitioner, presented the provisions of marital rape in the Indian Penal Code and the Indian Judicial Code. Karuna Nandi had said that the exception given in relation to marital rape should be repealed. Then the court said that you are saying that these provisions violate Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
The court said that while passing this provision, the Parliament thought that if he has sexual relations with his wife who is more than 18 years of age, then it will not be rape. The central government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing the demand to bring marital rape under the ambit of crime. According to the current law, a wife cannot sue her husband for rape even if he has forced sexual relations without the consent of the wife.
The government has supported this exemption given to the husband in the law. The central government stressed that this does not mean that the wife’s wish has no importance in marital relations. The government says that if the husband forcibly has sexual relations without the consent of the wife, then in such a situation, there is already an alternative legal provision to punish the husband.
In such a situation, a case can be registered against the husband under the Domestic Violence Act, various provisions related to violating the dignity of women, but this situation cannot be compared to the situation where a man forcibly has sexual relations with a woman without marital relations. The punishment cannot be the same for marital relations and such relations formed without marriage.
The Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Central Government on September 16, 2022. On May 11, 2022, the Delhi High Court gave a split verdict on the marital rape case. While Justice Rajiv Shakdher had declared the exception to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code unconstitutional, Justice C Harishankar had upheld it.
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