New Delhi (11/05/2022): The two-judge bench of Delhi High Court on Wednesday delivered spilt judgement on a batch of petitions seeking the criminalisation of marital rape.
The bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and C Hari Shankar had kept the order reserved in February earlier this year.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher ruled in favour of criminalising marital rape while Justice C Hari Shankar disagreed with the opinion and held that Exception 2 to Section 375 does not violate the Constitution as it is based on intelligible differences.
According to the order passed by Justice Rajiv Shakdher, husbands can be held criminally liable for sexual relations without the consent of the wife. Justice Hari Shankar expressed disagreement with this view.
The high court was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations filed in 2015 by non-profit RIT Foundation, All India Democratic Women’s Association and two individuals who sought striking down the exception in Indian rape laws on the grounds that it discriminated against married women who were sexually assaulted by their husbands.
