In a surprise move, the Karnataka government has lent support to the prosecution of a husband for the rape of his wife. In an affidavit filed at the Supreme Court, the state government said, “The High Court of Karnataka has considered all the questions of law involved in the present petition and it does not require any interference by this Court.” This is a significant development because, in an earlier case of a similar kind challenging exception 2 to Section 375 IPC, filed before the Delhi High Court, the BJP-led Central Government had refrained from taking a clear stand on criminalizing marital rape. Earlier, the Karnataka High Court refused to quash the FIR for marital rape on the ground that it falls under exception 2 to section 375. Pronouncing the accused guilty a single bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna observed that exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which exempts a husband from the offence of rape against his wife ‘is not absolute…a man is a man; an act is
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