Delhi High Court ruled that Indian law does not recognise marital rape, cancelling charges against a husband under Section 377 IPC. The court said consent was not clearly denied, so the law doesn’t apply.
New Delhi: Today, On May 21, The Delhi High Court has said that Indian law does not recognise the concept of marital rape and has cancelled a lower court’s order that had asked for a man to be prosecuted for having “unnatural” sex with his wife.
The High Court made it clear that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with unnatural offences, does not apply to a married couple when there is no clear allegation of lack of consent from the wife.
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The case was being heard by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, who was looking into the man’s appeal against a trial court’s decision.
The trial court had asked for charges to be framed against him under Section 377 IPC. This section provides punishment for engaging in “unnatural” sexual acts.
The allegation was that the husband had performed oral sex on his wife.
While giving her decision, Justice Sharma observed that the law in India does not consider marital rape as a criminal offence.
She pointed out that Section 377 IPC cannot be applied in cases of a married couple if there is no clear claim of non-consent.
The High Court stressed that the law does not treat sexual acts within a marriage in the same way as it treats acts between strangers or non-married persons under Section 377.
Therefore, if a wife does not specifically say that she did not give her consent, the law cannot be used to criminalise such acts between husband and wife.
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The judge said,
“The law does not recognise the concept of marital rape. Section 377 IPC penalising such acts won’t apply in a marital relationship particularly when the allegation of consent was missing.”
This important statement clearly reflects that Indian criminal law, as it stands today, does not treat certain sexual acts between husband and wife as criminal unless there is a specific and strong allegation of force or lack of consent.
In this case, since the wife did not clearly say that she was forced or did not agree to the act, the High Court decided that the charge under Section 377 IPC should not have been framed by the trial court.
Justice Sharma, after going through all the facts and arguments, allowed the husband’s appeal and cancelled the order of the lower court.
She made it clear that just because a certain sexual act is considered “unnatural” under the law does not mean it automatically becomes a crime when it happens between a husband and wife—especially when the wife has not firmly stated that she did not consent.
The judgement highlights how the current Indian legal system still does not have a law that defines or criminalises marital rape, even though debates on this topic are ongoing in society and among lawmakers.
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This case once again brings attention to the gap in Indian laws regarding the rights of married women in matters of consent and sexual autonomy, and how courts interpret these laws in the absence of specific legal provisions.
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