In India, where marital rape is not recognised as a crime, section 377 emerges as an alternative tool for married women. Explain the statement and discuss the impact of the recent apex court judgment in this regard. (200 words)
Refer – The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· An exemption to Indian rape law (IPC: Sec 375) says, “sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape. Thus, it doesn’t recognise marital rape as crime.
Sec 377 – an alternative
· Unlike Section 375, Section 377 (which criminalizes sexual activities against the order of nature) contains no marital exception.
· As a result, it has been possible to innovatively invoke it to proceed against husbands who subject their wives to penetrative non-consensual sexual acts which, it could be argued, are unnatural.
· Section 377 thus, in some circumstances, can accord relief to wives whose husbands rape them.
· In a legal context in which marital rape is not recognised, Section 377 emerges as a tool for married women to highlight the “unnatural” abuse they face.
Impact of SC judgment
· A recent judgment by the SC decriminalised homosexuality and read down Section 377 to apply only to minors and in cases of bestiality.
· From the judgment, it is unclear whether abused married women will be able to use the law in quite the same way as they did before.
Road to future
· If physically abused by their husbands, wives should be able to register a case without having to use the circuitous paths.
· A far more effective and progressive strategy would be for the state to criminalise marital rape.
· This could be done by passing a new law or merely removing the exemption in Section 375.
Tapasvi 6 years
Kindly review
IAS Parliament 6 years
Structure your points to give a good flow to your answer. Use the link just as a reference and try to improvise on your own. Avoid spelling mistakes. Keep writing.
