A bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher & Justice C Hari Shankar heard arguments from the petitioner organisations that want the Court to strike down an exception granted under the Indian Penal Code protecting husbands from being booked for raping their wives.
Senior Lawyer Colin Gonsalves, representing a woman petitioner, argued that Courts all over the world had recognised marital rape as an offence & abrogated the concept of a wife’s irrevocable consent for establishing sexual relations.
The senior Lawyer relied on a series of judgements passed by Courts in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, European Union & Nepal as well as international treaties to submit that an argument of a wife’s assumed consent was untenable.
He said the Nepal Supreme Court had observed that the Hindu religion didn't exempt the “heinous act of rape of a wife”. “Marital rape is the biggest form of sexual violence... How many times does rape take place in the institution of marriage & is never reported? This figure is not reported or analysed,” he contended, arguing that neither the woman’s parents & in-laws nor the police authorities come to their aid.
The Public Interest Litigations have been filed by NGOs RIT Foundation, All India Democratic Women’s Association, a man & a woman. The petitioners have challenged the constitutionality of IPC 375 on the ground that it discriminates against married women being sexually assaulted by their husbands.
Meanwhile, Delhi Govt in a short submission told HC that marital rape is already covered as the offence of cruelty under IPC & it is incorrect to claim that the victim has no recourse available in law.
Its counsel, Nandita Rao, said married & unmarried women were placed differently under every single law & pointed out that cases were registered under IPC 498 in such cases since marital rape is cruelty to wife. High Court will hear the Govt’s stand in detail later.
The Centre has said marital rape cannot be made a criminal offence as it may destabilise the institution of marriage & become an easy tool for harassing husbands.
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