New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday delivered split verdict on a batch of petitions seeking to criminalise marital rape and granted leave to the parties to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.
A division bench comprising of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and C Hari Shankar delivered the verdict.
The petitions had challenged the constitutionality of the marital rape exception under Section 375 IPC (rape) on the ground that it discriminated against married women who are sexually assaulted by their husbands. Under the exception, sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife, is she is not minor, is not rape.
Justice Shakdher, who was heading the division bench, held Exception 2 to Section 375 (rape) of the Indian penal Code, which exempts husband from the offence of rape for forcible sex with wife, as unconstitutional. Justice Shankar, however, said that it did not violate constitution.
Read the full text of the judgement here: