Notably, marital rape is still not a criminal offence in India under Section 376 of the IPC despite years of campaign.
Bengaluru: Bengaluru: In a landmark judgement, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday rejected a petition filed by a man, seeking to drop charges of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) levelled against him by his wife. A single judge bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna allowed framing of rape charges against the accused on the wife’s complaint of forcing her to be a ‘sex slave’.
Dismissing the arguments of the accused, the court refused to quash the rape charge framed against him. The bench remarked that the institution of marriage cannot be used to confer any special male privilege or a licence for “unleashing a brutal beast” on the wife.
The Court did not accept the husband’s argument that the charge cannot be framed against him due to exception to marital rape from the offence of rape as per Exception 2 to Section 375 of the IPC. The Court observed that the exemption cannot be absolute. “The exemption of the husband on committal of such assault/rape, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, as no exemption in law can be so absolute that it becomes a licence for commission of crime against society,” the Court said.
It said that it was established that a brutal act of sexual assault on the wife, against her consent, albeit by the husband, cannot but be termed to be a “rape”, adding the man sexually assaulting or raping his wife is amenable to punishment under Section 376 of IPC.
The order stated, “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 impact on her. Such acts of husbands scar the soul of the wives. It is, therefore, imperative for the law makers to now ‘hear the voices of silence’.
The High Court further said the “age-old thought and tradition that husbands are the rulers of their wives, their body, mind and soul should be effaced”. It was only on that “archaic, regressive and preconceived notion” that such cases are mushrooming in the nation, said the order.
Notably, marital rape is still not a criminal offence in India under Section 376 of the IPC despite years of campaign.
