Ambika bhardwaj
Published On: January 10, 2022 at 18:03 IST
The Delhi High Court was told on Friday that marital rape is the most common method of sexual assault and rape, and that an argument relies on a wife’s presumed consent was untenable.
The Court was hearing a slew of pleas attempting to make marital rape a crime.
“Marital rape is the most common form of sexual abuse that occurs within the walls of our residences. How many times does rape occur in the concept of marriage and go unreported? This figure is not noted or analysed,” says senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who claimed that neither family members nor police help victims of marital rape.
The PILs were lodged by the NGOs RIT Foundation and All India Democratic Women’s Association, as well as a male and a female, in order to overturn an exception given to married men under Indian rape law.
Gonsalves, who is expressing the female petitioner, contended before a bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and C. Hari Shankar that Court system around the world have acknowledged marital rape as a crime and have rejected the notion of a wife’s irrevocable permission for sexual relations.
Nandita Rao, a Delhi government lawyer, claimed that married and unmarried women were treated in adifferent manner underneath every single law.
“Marital rape is a violent criminal offence in India.” Every particular law distinguishes between married and unmarried female, she claims.
Rao also stated that in the Case of one of the petitioners, who claims she was repetitively made subject to marital rape, a FIR was filed under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for the appropriate measure.
Section 498A of the IPC deals with brutality to a married female by her husband or his relatives, where cruelty is defined as any wilful conduct that is responsible for driving the female to suicide or to end up causing grave injury or threat to the woman’s life, limb, or wellness (whether mental or physical).
In 2018, the city government informed the previous bench hearing the case – led by then chief justice Gita Mittal – that whenever one spouse engaged in sexual sexual relations without the consent of the other, it was always an offence under the IPC, and a female had the option to reject sexual relations with her partner under Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty).
In its affidavit filed in the Case, the Union government stated that marital rape should not be made a criminal offence because it could “disturb the marital relationship and be an easy concept for tormenting the husbands.”
Also read: Violence Against women and Marital rape