In a decision that could have a significant impact on the debate over marital rape, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday declined to dismiss rape accusations filed by a wife against her husband, ignoring the statutory exception, and instead urged politicians to listen to the “voices of silence.”
Marriage does not confer “special male privilege” or “authorize the unleashing of a brutal beast,” the Karnataka High Court stated in rejecting to dismiss rape charges filed by a trial court against a man in connection with his wife’s alleged sexual assault.
“The institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer, and should not be considered to confer any unique male privilege or a license to release a vicious beast,” Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court wrote in a single-judge panel.
The High Court made its views in response to a lawsuit brought by a lady accusing her husband of treating her like a ‘sex slave’. While upholding the husband’s rape accusation, the bench observed:
“A man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the ‘husband’ on the woman ‘wife’. If it is punishable to a man, it should be punishable to a man albeit, the man being a husband.”
Currently, the exemption to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code states that sexual intercourse between a man and his own wife, provided the wife is not under the age of fifteen, is not rape. The High Court, however, emphasised that the order concerns the laying of accusations against the spouse and not the question of whether marital rape should be recognized as a crime.
“It is up to the legislature to investigate the matter and possibly amending the exemption. This Court is not deciding whether marital rape should be recognized as a crime or whether the legislature should repeal the exception,” According to the Karnataka High Court.
What is the case
This judgement came during a hearing on a petition submitted in 2018 by a 43-year-old man seeking the dismissal of charges of rape and sexual assault on a child brought against him by Bengaluru police in response to a complaint lodged by his wife in March 2017 following an 11-year marriage. According to the petitioner, her husband coerced her into having unnatural intercourse, even in front of their kid.
Following an investigation into a complaint of rape, unnatural sex, and marital violence filed against the man by his wife, the police filed a chargesheet against him under Indian Penal Code sections for rape, dowry harassment, and assault of a woman (IPC 376, 498A, and 354), as well as the POCSO Act for sexual offences against a child.
Charges of unnatural sex were dropped by the police (IPC 377). The spouse disputed the chargesheet in the High Court on the grounds that rape charges do not apply to a man who is the alleged rape victim’s husband. The HC ruled in the opposite direction.
Other HCs’ positions on the issue of Marital Rape
Earlier this year, while hearing petitions regarding the criminalization of marital rape, the Delhi High Court questioned how a married woman’s dignity is not affected as an unmarried woman when a man imposes himself on her, remarking that relationship cannot elevate a woman’s dignity above that of an unmarried woman because a woman remains a woman.
In August 2021, the Chhattisgarh High Court acquitted a man charged with marital rape, holding that sexual intercourse or any sexual act between a legally married couple is not considered rape, even if it is committed with force.
Published By: Apoorva Wakodikar
Edited By: Subbuthai Padma
