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BJP-led Karnataka Government Supports Prosecution of Husband for Marital Rape



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 an act; rape is rape’, he said. The High Court further observed that this immunity is not meant to be a license for the commission of crimes.

Following the guilty verdict, the aggrieved husband filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court. In response to it, a Supreme Court bench comprising the former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Hima Kohli passed an ad-interim stay order on the High Court judgment.

The affidavit filed by the State government has backed the Karnataka High Court’s decision to refuse the quashing of the FIR. It stated that whether the charge holds on or not is a matter of trial, but based on the facts and circumstances of the case there is no reason to absolve the accused merely on the ground that IPC provides immunity against marital rape.

Even though the judgment refrained from making any pronouncement on the constitutionality of marital rape exemption, the state government in its affidavit made a reference to the recommendations of the JS Verma committee that proposed some amendments to the Criminal law. Among its many suggestions, it proposed the removal of the exception of marital rape and recommended that the law must "specify that a marital or other relationship between the perpetrator or victim is not a valid defence against the crimes of rape or sexual violation".

Seeking dismissal of the husband’s challenge against the High Court’s verdict, the State Government’s affidavit averred, “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 the Supreme Court.”

The Supreme Court is expected to take up this matter in conjunction with the petitions challenging the Delhi High Court’s split verdict in the pleas to criminalize marital rape.

 

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