Supreme Court to examine plea against Karnataka High Court judgement on marital rape

'We have to hear the matter,' the SC bench said, ordering issuance of the notice against the March 23, 2022 judgement

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to examine a plea against the Karnataka High Court's judgement which held that a brutal act of sexual assault against a woman, albeit by her husband, cannot but be termed as rape.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli issued a notice to the Karnataka government and the woman-complainant on a petition filed by the husband.

Also Read — Rape is rape, even when done by husband: Karnataka HC

"We have to hear the matter," the bench said, ordering issuance of the notice against the March 23, 2022 judgement, which said the exception granted to husband under Section 375 of the IPC cannot be absolute.

Notably, the Delhi High Court had already reserved its judgement in a batch of matters challenging the validity of Exception 2 of Section 375, which decriminalises marital rape.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing on caveat for the wife, submitted that there has been a stay on trial for five years and the woman had been waiting indefinitely for the trial to begin.

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, for the petitioner, sought a notice on stay of the trial, scheduled to begin from May 29.

The bench, however, told the counsel that it would hear the matter in July and the petitioner may tell the trial court that it was seized of the case.

A single-judge bench of Justice Nagaprasanna, in the judgement, had said that the 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.

"It is for the lawmakers to ponder over the 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.