India is one among 150 countries across the world where marital rape is not recognized by laws in the Indian Penal Code. Recently, The Delhi High court delivered a split decision on the constitutionality of marital rape in the country. Putting things further into the picture, studies find that one in every three women in India from age 15 face some form of violence from their spouses. More than 80 percent of women reported their present husbands as perpetrators and more than 9 percent called their former husbands the same.
What the constitution has to say?
Marital rape in India is presented in the Indian constitution as an exception numbered 2 to section 375 of the Indian Penal Code. This exception states that sexual intercourse of a man with his own wife who is not under 15 years of age will not be considered rape. This means a woman cannot file a complaint for the offense of rape if she is married and undergoing physical violence or threats of forced sexual intercourse. Rape laws in India have always undergone various changes. However, the marital rape exception has remained ever since its inception.
Couldn’t the marital rape exception be discarded?
Since 2000, the law commission of India has tried to bring about changes considering the numerous proposals in this regard. However, they were discarded since it was considered excessive interference in a marital relationship. The amendment was never accepted through proposed numerous times along with the various verdicts of rape cases in the country. With the constant and vehement refusal of the amendment of the exception, the makers of the Indian Penal Code seem to urge a wife’s duty to have sex with her husband and that marriage means the signing away of a woman’s right to consent. It might be difficult to ascertain consent when people are living together and the removal of the exception might be misused by women to claim rape by their husbands. However, safeguards to prevent genuine misuse can be set up to counter it.
