“Marriage not license to unleash brutal beast”: High Court

On Wednesday, the Karnataka High Court pronounced “Marriage is no license to “let go a brutal beast.” In a landmark judgment High court said that authorizes drafting of rape charges against a husband accused of forcing his wife to be a “sex slave”.

In the case of Hrishikesh Sahoo v. the State of Karnataka, the Karnataka High Court declined to quash the charge of rape framed under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against a man accused of raping and keeping his wife as a sex slave. 

Justice M Nagaprasanna Single-judge said that the marriage is an institution but it cannot be used to give out any special male advantages or a license for untying of a “brutal beast” on the wife. 

The case involves a woman who told the court that her husband had treated her like a sex slave right from the start of their marriage. Describing her husband as “inhuman”, she claimed that she had been forced to have unnatural sex, even in front of her daughter, by him. 

In spite of years of campaign in India Marital rape is still not a criminal offense. While the Karnataka High Court said it was not talking about whether marital rape should be recognized as an offense. It was for the legislature to consider it. 

The Karnataka High Court noted that the “orthodox thought and tradition that husbands should dominate their wives, their body, mind, and soul should be lie down”. The order said that it was only on that “archaic, regressive and preconceived notion” that such cases are mushrooming in the nation. 

The High Court order said “The institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer and in my considered view, should not be construed to confer, any special male privilege or a license for unleashing of a brutal beast. If it is punishable to a man, it should be punishable to a man albeit, the man being a husband”. 

“A brutal act of sexual assault on the wife, against her consent, albeit by the husband, cannot but be termed to be a rape. Such sexual assault by a husband on his wife will have grave consequences on the mental sheet of the wife, it has both psychological and physiological impacts on her. Such acts of husbands scar the soul of the wives. It is, therefore, imperative for the lawmakers to now “hear the voices of silence,” the order stated. 

Therefore, it was concluded that the charge framed against the husband by the Sessions Judge for the offense punishable under Section 376 of the IPC for the alleged rape of his wife, in the peculiar facts of this case, does not warrant any interference and is a matter of trial. 

Published by: Shivani Bhalke

Edited by: Subbuthai Padma