Will decide constitutionality of exception to marital rape in penal law: Supreme Court

Spreme court will decide constitutionality of exception to marital rape in penal law

The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 17, 2024) questioned the logic behind a penal law which considers wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and assault of a wife by her husband as offences but not the act of forced sex which follows after the woman relents under pressure.

“The husband demands sexual intercourse. Wife resists. She is wrongfully confined. She is threatened and criminally intimidated. The wife finally succumbs [to pressure]. So all the preliminary acts make offences under the law, but the act of forced sexual intercourse alone is not a crime?” Justice J.B. Pardiwala asked.

The question came on the first day of hearing a batch of petitions seeking criminalisation of non-consensual sexual acts in a marriage as ‘rape’.

The petitioners have argued that protection given to non-consensual sexual acts by a man with his wife violated the woman’s right to bodily integrity, autonomy and dignity.

However, a recent affidavit filed by the Centre said punishment of non-consensual sexual acts in a wedlock and categorising it as rape would impact conjugal relationship and lead to “serious disturbances” in the institution of marriage.

Also read: Marital rape SC hearing: ‘Marrying victim does not absolve a rapist of his crime’, argues Karuna Nundy

The petitions variously seek to strike down the exceptions in Section 375 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the colonial Code earlier this year.