In a crucial judgment on marital rape, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday refused to drop rape charges framed by a trial court against a man for sexually assaulting his wife. The Court ruled that the marriage doesn’t confer any special male privilege or a license for unleashing a brutal beast on the wife.
“A man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the ‘husband’ on the woman ‘wife’”, said a single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court. The Court was hearing the case from the year 2017 where a woman had filed a case against her husband who was allegedly treating her like a ‘sex slave’.
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Upholding the rape charges against the husband, the High Court said that the age-old, regressive thought that ‘husbands are the rulers of their wives, their body, mind, and soul’ should be effaced. However, the court did not completely strike down the marital rape exception included in the Indian Penal Code, which says ‘sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, the latter not being under 15 years of age, is not rape’. The Court clarified that the order pertains to the framing of charges against the husband and is not about whether marital rapes should be recognized as an offense or not.
Court Findings
According to the reports, Justice Nagaprasanna maintained that the institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer, and in my considered view, should not be construed to confer, any special male privilege or a license for unleashing of a brutal beast. If it is punishable to a man, it should be punishable to a man albeit, the man being a husband.
“A brutal act of sexual assault on the wife, against her consent, albeit by the husband, cannot b nbvut be termed to be a rape. Such sexual assault by a husband on his wife will have grave consequences on the mental sheet of the wife, it has both psychological and physiological impacts on her. Such acts of husbands scar the soul of the wives. It is, therefore, imperative for the lawmakers to now hear the voices of silence,” the court added.
The Court meanwhile also referred to the Indian Constitution and said that the Constitution treats women as equal to men and considers marriage as an association of ‘equals’. “The Constitution does not in any sense depict the woman to be subordinate to a man”, it said adding that under the Constitution- rights are equal, protection is also equal.
Husband charged for rape, dowry harassment, assault under IPC 376, 498A, 354
The Bengaluru-based woman who had filed the complaint against her husband in the year 2017, after 11 years of marriage, also stated that her husband had forced her in front of their daughter. The Bengaluru Police post-investigation had earlier filed a charge sheet against the man for rape, dowry harassment, assault of a woman under IPC 376, 498A, 354. The Police had also charged him under the POCSO Act for sexual offenses against a child. The trial court eventually framed charges for rape, cruelty by husband, and criminal intimidation.
In the year 2018, the 43-year-old man challenged the decision of the trial court and appealed to the High Court for dropping charges of rape and sexual assault on a child brought against him by the Police. The charge sheet by the husband also maintained that rape charges were not applicable against a man who was the husband of the alleged rape victim. The Karnataka HC however ruled otherwise.
It is important to note that in January this year, the Delhi High Court while hearing the petition relating to the marital rape had questioned how the dignity of a married woman is not affected as an unmarried woman when the man imposes herself upon her. The HC had reserved its judgment as the Centre refused to take a stand without consulting the stakeholders (states and NCW). However, in August 2021, the Chhattishgarh High Court had acquitted a man charged with marital rape stating that sexual intercourse or any sexual act between a legally wedded couple is not rape even if done by force.
