The Supreme Court docket has requested the Centre to explicate its stand on marital rape. It stays to be seen whether or not the Centre maintains the place it took in a 2017 affidavit filed by the house affairs ministry within the Delhi Excessive Court docket, which was listening to petitions on the identical subject — that whereas males who power themselves on their wives ought to face “penal penalties”, punishing them for rape would “severely impression the marital relationship” and “have a far-reaching impact on the establishment of marriage.” To make sure, the issue of non-consensual sexual activity inside marriage received’t cease present even when we don’t name it rape. The Legal Regulation (Modification) Act of 2013 — it acknowledged that marital rape was a type of abuse, however allowed an exception for sexual relations between a person and his spouse, supplied she is over the age of 16, and mentioned this might be thought of consensual — took place on account of far-reaching suggestions of the Justice Verma Committee, however key solutions weren’t included. Certainly one of them was to dispose of the authorized provision that didn’t recognise marital rape. As a substitute, the exception, which went in opposition to the very spirit of the legislation that sought to criminalise all grades of sexual assault in opposition to ladies, was retained.
The argument propounded by the Centre is a sensible one: One thing should be mentioned for proscribing the restrict of State energy over particular person life and liberty. The difficulty is that the person whose freedom is being thought of right here is male. Let’s take into account a thought experiment, the place the protected particular person is feminine as a substitute. How totally different would the Centre’s affidavit have been if it was a married lady’s life and liberty at stake? Would there be a presumption of lies, as an illustration? What authorized markers would represent a wholesome, and socially and culturally acceptable marital relationship, as a substitute? These solutions, to cite the Centre’s earlier affidavit, may have far-reaching results on the establishment of marriage.
