After so many hearings criminalization of ‘Marital Rape’ The Delhi High Court, today rendered a mixed decision on the question of criminalizing marital rape and allowed the parties leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The following is a history of events surrounding the marital rape exception in criminal law and the subject of its criminalization, which the Delhi High Court parted on Wednesday:
1860: The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is enacted, except for marital rape affecting women over the age of ten.
1940: The IPC is revised, and the marital rape exception is extended to women over the age of 15.
11 January 2016: The Delhi High Court issues a notice to the Centre, requesting a response to the first suit challenging the IPC’s marital rape provision.
August 2017: The Centre warns the High Court that making marital rape a criminal offense would disrupt the institution of marriage.
October 2017: The Supreme Court strikes down the marital rape exemption, ruling that sexual intercourse between a man and his wife is not raped if she is not under the age of eighteen. Previously, section 375’s exception 2 stated that sexual intercourse or acts between a man and his wife, if the wife is not under the age of fifteen, is not rape.
January 2018: The Delhi government notifies the High Court that in the eyes of the law, marital rape is already a kind of abuse and that a woman has the right to refuse sexual intercourse with her husband.
January 2022
- 7th Jan: The High Court has begun daily hearings on petitions seeking to make marital rape a crime.
- 13th Jan: The Centre informs the High Court that it is “already seized of the problem,” that it is considering a “proactive approach” to criminalizing marital rape, and that it has sought input from stakeholders such as state governments and unions territories.
- 17th Jan: The High Court requests that the Centre clarify its in-principle position after allowing time to establish and place its “considered stand.”
- 24th Jan: The Centre asked the High Court to give it “sufficient time” to present its case, claiming that criminalizing marital rape entails concerns that cannot be examined from a “microscopic perspective.”
- 28thJan: The High Court has asked the Centre to inform it whether it wanted to withdraw its 2017 affidavit, which stated that marital rape could not be made a crime.
February 2022
- 1st February: The Government informs the High Court that it is “re-examining” its former position, which was made public in an affidavit submitted several years ago, and has requested more time to state its position.
- 3rd February: The Centre asks the High Court to postpone hearings on petitions to criminalize marital rape, stating that it will establish a timetable within which it will conduct an effective consultation process on the matter. The centre has two weeks to respond to the petitions, according to the High Court.
- 21st February The High Court reserves its decision on petitions and refuses to award extra time to the Centre, stating that it is impossible to adjourn an ongoing process because the government’s deliberations on the issue have yet to be completed.
11 May 2022:
Today, the Delhi High Court rendered a mixed decision on the subject of criminalizing marital rape. Exception 2 of Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which decriminalizes marital rape, was struck down by Justice Rajiv Shakdher. Meanwhile, Justice C. Hari Shankar affirmed the constitutionality of the contentious rape law section, claiming that it was founded on “intelligible differentia.”
The High Court has given the parties engaged in the case permission to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Read out the detail about today’s Verdict:
