‘Half-hearted reply an injustice’: Centre asks HC for time to reply in marital rape hearing
Hindustan Times“A half-hearted reply” may affect the lives of several citizens, the Union government told the Delhi high court on Monday, as it sought more time to respond categorically on whether it was in favour of doing away with the exception in the rape law that provides immunity to husbands from the offence of marital rape. A bench of justices Rajiv Shakdher and C Hari Shankar, while hearing pleas seeking to criminalise marital rape, was informed by solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre, that the issue should not be seen from a “microscopic angle” and several considerations would be considered by the government while formulating its stand. The court, however, said the issue of criminalising marital rape is not going to end in the high court and whichever party felt aggrieved by its judgment, will challenge it in a superior court. Exception of Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code decriminalises marital rape and mandates that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15, is not rape.