Karnataka High Court Terms Marital Rape Exception Regressive, Says “Brutal Acts Of Sexual Assault On Wife By The Husband Is Rape”
Consent as a concept is not something that exists between a legally married couple by the law in India. There aren’t enough words in this world to describe how wrong that is but we’re all about taking baby steps to bring about some change. And things seem to be looking up for women as marital rape is currently a hot topic of debate in the country. But that’s not all, in a recent case, the Karnataka High Court made a landmark judgement that could be significant in the law surrounding consent and marital rape in marriages in India. The court dismissed a plea to quash a rape charge framed under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code stating that marriage cannot be used as an excuse to unleash a ‘brutal beast’ on the wife and assault her.
In Hrishikesh Sahoo vs the State of Karnataka according to Bar And Bench, the Karnataka High Court said that the institution of marriage does not confer any special male privilege or give the husband a license for ‘unleashing of a brutal beast’. A single-judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna said that the ‘brutal act of sexual assault on the wife’ committed against her consent by the husband cannot be termed anything other than rape while adding that such an assault by the husband will take a toll on the wife both psychological as well as physiologically. “Such acts of husbands scar the soul of the wives,” said the Karnataka High Court.
The counsel for the man has claimed that the man cannot be charged for rape as he is the husband of the woman but the Karnataka High Court held that the charge of rape against the husband does is valid and is a matter of trial. In this case, the wife of the man had accused her husband of cruelty, unnatural sex as well as child sex abuse. The wife had alleged that the husband committed brutal sexual acts against her including having oral, anal sex as well as forcible sex with her during her pregnancy as well as after the termination of her pregnancy. She also accused her husband of sexually abusing their daughter and having forcible sexual intercourse with his wife in the presence of their daughter. The wife said that her husband had turned her into a sex slave, as reported by Bar And Bench.
Also Read: Hautetalk: Marriage Cannot Take Away A Woman’s Right To Say ‘No’. Criminalising Marital Rape Is The Need Of The Hour
The Karnataka High Court noted that the charge sheet filed by the police and the submissions made by the wife and the daughter was so ‘chilling and abhorrent’ that they cannot be reproduced in the court order as it contained graphic details of the abuse. The court further spoke about marital sex being an age-old law from the Victorian era when husbands wielded power over their wives and the women were denied basic rights and liberties.
In its order, Karnataka High Court stated that India is governed by the Constitution post-Republic and it guarantees fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution which includes the right to equality which also guarantees equal protection. Speaking about marital rape, the court stated that the exception for husbands made in Section 375 is inequality which is ‘destroys the soul of the Constitution which is Right to Equality’.
Also Read: Gujarat High Court On Marital Rape: Marriage Is Not Irrevocable Consent, High Time To Reconsider
The Karnataka High Court further stated that the exception in the law is not progressive but regressive while adding that it treats a woman as a subordinate to the husband. It also spoke about how several countries have made marital rape illegal including the United Kingdom from where the present Indian Penal Code is largely drawn.
