Section 375 of the IPC dealing with rape makes an exception for such instances within marriages and holds that “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape”
What “may appear to be marital rape” to a wife “may not appear so to others”, the central government took a stand against criminalising marital rape, in its affidavit to the Delhi High Court on Monday, on the ground that it “may destabilise the institution of marriage apart from being an easy tool for harassing the husbands”. “As to what constitutes marital rape and what would constitute marital non-rape needs to be defined precisely before a view on its criminalisation is taken,” states the Centre’s affidavit.
It goes on to cite the “rising misuse of Section 498A of IPC”, commonly known as the dowry law, to demonstrate how laws dealing with violence against women can be misused “for harassing the husbands”.
The central government was responding to a bunch of petitions which wanted marital rape to be legally recognised and made a punitive offence.
No comments:
Post a Comment