SC to hear petitions seeking to criminalise marital rape

• The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a series of petitions seeking to criminalise marital rape.

Earlier Cases

• The Karnataka High Court had earlier held that a husband was liable to be charged for rape under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) if he has forcible sex with his wife.
• The Karnataka government had supported the High Court judgment in an affidavit in the top court subsequently.
• Exception two to Section 375 of the IPC decriminalises marital rape and holds that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, who is not under 18, without her consent is not rape.
• “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’,” the Karnataka High Court had observed in its decision, saying an accused should face trial regardless of the immunity in the penal code.

Prelims Take Away

• IPC Section 375