'Will examine the matter', Top Court notice to Centre on petitions against exception to husband in rape law

SC today issued notice to the union on petitions arising out of Delhi HC divided verdict on the issue of marital rape.

Bench comprising of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B.V. Nagarathna delivered that he court will examine the matter, as the position of law has been existing for quite a long time. The court asked union’s reaction on petitions against the May 11 judgment of the Delhi High Court.

Advocate Karuna Nundy, attending for All India Democratic Women's Association, gave that the two judges of the high court have taken different views and they were unanimous that this matter should be decided by the apex court. 

Nundy stressed that there was a strong question of law involved in the matter. The apex court noted to club all pending cases and scheduled the matter for further hearing in February, 2023.

Senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayan requested he bench to tag along a matter, which is pending since 2018. He noted the plea filed by 'Youth for Equality', seeking a declaration that Explanation 2 to Section 375 that reads as "sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape" is ultra vires Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

On May 11, Bench comprising of justices Rajiv Shakdher and justice C. Hari Shankar viewed different opinions in the judgement on the exception to Section 375 of the IPC, which exempts forceful sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the offence of rape.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher made it clear in support for striking down the contentious law stating that the prevention of the husband from the offence of marital rape is unconstitutional to which Justice Hari Shankar did not accept.

Justice Hari Shankar "The impugned provisions in so far as they concern a husband having intercourse with his wife without consent are violative of Article 14 and are therefore struckdown".

Petitions filed in the top court sought a direction to strike down of the exception granted to husbands under the Indian rape law. These petitions have been opposed by men's rights groups and others.