By Thamanna Sadique
Chhattisgarh high court acquits a man of marital rape charges, citing legal immunity for husbands, reigniting debates on marital consent laws in India.
A 40-year-old man accused of abusing his wife through brutal sexual acts that ended in her death received an acquittal from the Chhattisgarh high court because existing laws of Indian jurisprudence do not permit prosecution against men who violate their wives.
On Monday a single-judge bench of justice Narendra Kumar Vyas erased all convictions from the accused by acquitting him of charges under sections 376 (rape) and 377 (unnatural sex) and 304 (culpable homicide) violations from the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The judge ordered the accused to receive immediate jail release.
According to the high court decision marriage provides a protective legal shield for men who commit the act of rape against their spouses based on Exception 2 of Section 375 of IPC. The courts maintain that husbands cannot be prosecuted for rape if their wives exceed the age of 15 years since their sexual acts remain legal under current laws. Justice Vyas declared that the lack of consent from a wife to perform unnatural acts no longer matters due to this legal provision.
He explained that Exception 2 of Section 375 establishes that marital sexual acts remain exempt from rape laws so “any type of sex defined in Section 377 that husband performs with his wife cannot be classified as a crime”.
Despite this development the age restriction of 15 years remains opposed to the Supreme Court’s 2017 ruling from Independent Thought that determined sexual intercourse between husband and wife below 18 years old qualifies as criminal rape. Marriage as a contract, has given the obligation of providing sexual pleasures to their spouses with whom they have entered the contract. This makes asking consent in a marriage for intimate activities a useless concept. The constitution, its rule and regulations has denied justice to the dead.