[Marital Rape] Supreme Court issues notice in challenge to Karnataka HC order allowing trial against man for raping wife

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice in an appeal filed against an order of the Karnataka High Court which permitted a man who allegedly raped his wife be subjected to trial [Hrishikesh Sahoo v. State of Karnataka]..Notice was issued by the Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices JK Maheshwari and Hima Kohli. The Bench, however, refused to stay the trial in the case..Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave urged the Bench to stay the trial, which will commence on May 29. However, the Bench was reluctant to do so, with CJI Ramana saying,"Now after notice, you can tell them we are hearing this case.".The Court proceeded to direct that the matter be listed in the third week of July. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising appeared for the wife on caveat..In its order passed on March 23 this year, the Karnataka High Court had declined to quash the charge of rape framed under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against a man accused of raping his wife and keeping her as a sex slave.Justice M Nagaprasanna said that the institution of marriage cannot be used to confer any special male privilege or a license for unleashing of a "brutal beast" on the wife."A brutal act of sexual assault on the wife, against her consent, albeit by the husband, cannot but be termed to be a rape. 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," the High Court had held..Terming the exception for husbands under Section 375 IPC as regressive, the Court said that under the Code, every other man indulging in offences against woman is punished for those offences. It had thus held,"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”."While upholding the charge of rape against the husband, the High Court noted that it is not pronouncing on whether marital rape should be recognized as an offence or the exception be taken away by the legislature, and that it was concerned only with the charge of rape framed against the husband in the present case..[BREAKING] Karnataka High Court refuses to quash rape case against husband .The judgment of the Delhi High Court in a batch of petitions demanding the criminalisation of marital rape is awaited.The petitions have challenged Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which exempts non-consensual sex between husband and wife from the ambit of rape..During the hearing of that case, the Central government had told the High Court that a stand on the issue could only be taken after consultation with State governments and other stakeholders.

[Marital Rape] Supreme Court issues notice in challenge to Karnataka HC order allowing trial against man for raping wife

Debayan Roy

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