Marital rape: SC to hear on Sep 16 pleas arising out of Delhi HC\'s split verdict
Deccan ChronicleNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday said it would hear on September 16 the pleas arising out of the Delhi High Court's split verdict on the issue of criminalisation of marital rape. Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who headed the division bench of the high court, had favoured striking down the marital rape exception and said it would be tragic if a married woman's call for justice is not heard even after 162 years since the enactment of the Indian Penal Code. Justice C Hari Shankar, who was part of the high court's division bench, had said the exception under the rape law is not unconstitutional and was based on an intelligible differentia having a rational nexus with the object of the exception as well as section 375 of the IPC itself. The petitioners before the high court had challenged the constitutionality of the marital rape exception under section 375 IPC on the ground that it discriminated against married women who are sexually assaulted by their husbands.