New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear from March 14 the plea seeking to bring marital rape under the ambit of rape. The apex court has asked the Central government to file a reply on the matter by February 15. Earlier, during the hearing on the petitions, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said, "We had sought views of all stakeholders a few months ago. We want to file a reply in this matter.''
A bench of Chief Justice (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala is hearing the matter. Last year i.e. on 16 September 2022, the top court agreed to examine whether marital rape is a crime or not. The court had issued a notice to the central government and sought its response. According to Indian law, marital rape is not a legal crime right now. However, there has been a long-standing demand from many organizations to declare it a crime. There has been a demand in the Supreme Court to criminalize marital rape.
Let us know that on May 11, 2022, two judges of the Delhi High Court gave different decisions on this matter. During the hearing of this case, the opinion of the two judges did not appear to be the same. Due to this, both the judges proposed this matter for hearing in the apex court. During the hearing, Justice Rajiv Shakdhar, who presided over the bench, favored quashing of the marital rape exception. Justice C Hari Shankar said the exception under the IPC is not unconstitutional and is based on a sensible distinction.
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