SC defers hearing pleas against immunity to husbands in marital rape
Justice Chandrachud said he won’t be able to conclude the hearing and give a verdict if the hearing doesn’t conclude before the court closes for Diwali vacation
Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Wednesday deferred hearing by four weeks pleas challenging the immunity granted to husbands in cases of marital rape.
Justice Chandrachud, who demits office on November 10, said he won’t be able to conclude the hearing and give a verdict if the hearing doesn’t conclude before the court closes for Diwali vacation.
He said all the lawyers in the case need to be given time for making their submissions.
Hearing after 4 weeks
The bench, also including Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, fixed the hearing after four weeks by another bench.
The court commenced the hearing on October 17. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) grant immunity from prosecution to a husband for the offence of rape if he forces his wife, who is not a minor, to have sex with him.
Law on marital sex
Under the exception clause of Section 375 of the IPC, sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife, the wife not being minor, is not rape.
Even under the new law BNS, exception 2 to Section 63 (rape) says that "sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape".
The Centre argued that in ever-changing social and family structure, misuse of the amended provisions could not be ruled out as it would be difficult for a person to prove whether consent was there or not.
