Can’t make marital rape a crime: Govt
May destabilise institution of marriage, claims Centre
New Delhi: Marital rape cannot be made a criminal offence as it could become a phenomenon which might destabilise the institution of marriage and an easy tool for harassing husbands, the government on Tuesday submitted before the Delhi high court.
Marital rape cannot be made a criminal offence as it could become a phenomenon which may destabilise the institution of marriage and an easy tool for harassing the husbands, the government on Tuesday submitted before the Delhi high court.
The Centre, in an affidavit filed in response to pleas seeking criminalising marital rape, said the Supreme Court and various high courts have already observed the growing misuse of section 498A (harassment caused to a married woman by her husband and in-laws) of IPC.
The reply, filed before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, also sought to implead state governments in the matter to know their opinion to avoid any complication at a later stage.
“It has to be ensured adequately that marital rape does not become a phenomenon which may destabilise the institution of marriage apart from being an easy tool for harassing the husbands,” the affidavit, filed through Central government standing counsel Monika Arora, said.
The government was responding to various petitions seeking declaration of Section 375 (offence of rape) of the IPC as unconstitutional on the ground that it discriminated against married women being sexually assaulted by their husbands.
During the day’s hearing, senior advocate advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for one of the petitioners, argued that marriage cannot be viewed as giving a husband the right to coerced intercourse on demand.
He said a marriage licence cannot be viewed as licence for a husband to forcibly rape his wife with impunity and a married woman has the same right of full control over her body as an unmarried woman. He also referred to various judgments of foreign countries.