Marital rape needs to be recognised as rape

The petitioners have contended that there can be no exception to heinous crimes like rape. Even after the introduction of new criminal laws, it is a blot on our legislature that the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita retains the protection for marital rape. The Union government has filed an affidavit that criminalisation of marital rape would be “excessively harsh”.

This has now left the matter open to judicial determination. It is now hoped that the Supreme Court, which took serious exception to the Kolkata rape murder issue, will put an end to the regressive mindset and abolish this legislative aberration.

The arguments against criminalising marital rape are bewildering, baseless and outdated. When Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Parliament Kanimozhi Karunanidhi asked the minister of State for home affairs in Rajya Sabha whether the government of India will remove the exception to marital rape from the law (April 29, 2015), he replied in the negative. The minister said that the “concept of marital rape cannot be applied in Indian context” due to “illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, and mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament”.