SC On Marital Rape: Will marital rape be brought under the crime category? Now the Supreme Court will hear the case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court gave a big decision in the case of not keeping marital rape in the category of crime in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and said that it will hear this case on Thursday. This case is related to the petitions filed against considering marital rape as an exception under the new criminal laws. A bench headed by Chief Justice (CJI) DY Chandrachud of the Supreme Court had fixed the day for hearing a long case related to income tax on Tuesday. After this, senior advocate Indira Jaisingh, appearing for the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), requested to list the marital rape case as soon as possible. Jaisingh said that since the income tax case will take the whole day for hearing, the marital rape case should be given priority. he/she told the bench, ‘We will appreciate it if you can give priority to the cases related to marital rape.’ CJI Chandrachud assured Jaisingh that if the hearing could not be held on Tuesday, the case would be heard on Wednesday or Thursday. he/she said, ‘If we cannot take it up for hearing today, we will look into it tomorrow or the day after.’

What is the whole matter?

On May 12, 2022, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court gave separate verdicts on the issue of declaring marital rape a crime. Justice Rajiv Shakdher favoured declaring it a crime, while Justice C Harishankar dissented from this opinion and said that Exception 2 of Section 375 does not violate the Constitution as it is based on sensible differences. After this, several petitions were filed before the Supreme Court, seeking appropriate guidelines. The petition of AIDWA is also included in these petitions, which challenges the exception to marital rape under the new criminal laws. Now it remains to be seen what decision the Supreme Court gives in this matter.