Karnataka High Court order on marital rape stayed by Supreme Court

New Delhi, July 20: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed judgment of the Karnataka High Court which had declined to quash the charge of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code against a man accused of raping and keeping his wife as a sex slave.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice of India, N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli also stayed the proceedings that arose out of the FIR pending before the Additional City and Sessions Court.

"Until further orders, there shall be an ad-interim stay of the common impugned judgment and final order dated March 23, 2022 passed by the High Court of Karnataka in Writ Petitions No.48367/2018 and 50089/2018 and further proceedings in relation to Special C.C. No. 356 of 2017 arising out of FIR bearing Crime No. 19/2017, pending before the Additional City and Sessions and Special Court for cases under the POCSO Act, Bangalore," the Bench said.

The Karnataka High Court, in its March 23 verdict, has held that a man cannot escape trial for rape only because the victim is his wife as it is against the right to equality and suggested that lawmakers should heed the "voices of silence" and remove the inequalities in the statute.
The age-old regressive thought that the husbands are the rulers of their wives, their body, mind and soul should be effaced, it said while refusing to drop the charge of rape against the petitioner who had allegedly sexually assaulted his wife.

"Woman and man being equal under the Constitution cannot be made unequal by Exception-2 to Section 375 of the IPC," it further said, noting that it is for the lawmakers to ponder over the existence of such inequalities in law.

Before the Delhi High Court, while the central government had not placed its clear stand on the issue of criminalisation of marital rape, it had said that a stand could only be taken by the Centre after consultations with state governments and other stakeholders.

It had said that since this case could have an impact on social and family life with far reaching consequences, the Centre can place its stand only after a consultative process.

In its 2017 affidavit, the Centre had opposed the pleas submitting that marital rape cannot be made a criminal offence as it could become a phenomenon that may destabilise the institution of marriage and an easy tool for harassing husbands.

However, the Centre told the court in January that it was "re-looking" at its earlier stand on the petitions as that was brought on record in the affidavit filed several years ago.

The petitioners have challenged the constitutionality of the marital rape exception under Section 375 IPC (rape) on the ground that it discriminated against married women who are sexually assaulted by their husbands.