SC stays Karnataka HC order on marital rape

The Supreme Court has stayed the Karnataka High Court's judgment of March 23 which had held that a man can be prosecuted for offence of rape with his wife and the Exception granted to the husband under Section 375 of the IPC cannot be absolute.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli said, "Until further orders, there shall be an ad-interim stay of the common impugned judgment and final order dated 23rd March, 2022 passed by the High Court of Karnataka."

Acting on a plea by an aggrieved husband, the court, in a recent order, also suspended criminal proceedings initiated in a Bengaluru court against him.

A single judge bench of Justice Nagaprasanna, in the judgment, had said Exception granted to husband under the law against the offence of rape leads to inequality and runs counter to Article 14 (equality) of the Constitution.

The High Court had then said that a brutal act of sexual assault against a woman, albeit by her husband, cannot but be termed as rape.

"It is for the lawmakers to ponder over existence of such inequalities in law. For ages man donning the robes of a husband has used the wife as his chattel. The age-old thought and tradition that the husbands are the rulers of their wives, their body, mind and soul should be effaced. It is only on this archaic, regressive and preconceived notion, the cases of this kind are mushrooming in the nation," the High Court had said.

Notably, on May 11, the Delhi High Court had given a split judgment on plea challenging validity of Exception 2 of Section 375 Indian Penal Code (IPC) which decriminalised marital rape.

With this, a critical question related to recognising spousal violence and its impact on social, cultural, and familial relationships has been left for the Supreme Court to examine and adjudicate.

The Centre had earlier preferred not to take any stand on the issue, saying it was required to consult states and other stakeholders.

In 2017, the Supreme Court had read down an exception to Section 375 only to the extent of criminalising rape with a minor wife but clarified at the same time that it has not expressed any view on the issue of marital rape.

However, the Justice J S Verma committee formed after 2012 Delhi gang rape case had in 2013 recommended criminalisation of marital rape, since the state of being married does not generate automatic consent to sexual acts.