No Immunity To Husbands

A judgment by the Karnataka High Court has held a manguilty of raping his wife and said marriage is not a licence for such acts. India is one of the few countries that have still not criminalised marital rape

- Banshika Garg and India Legal Bureau

Rape does indeed happen between girlfriend and boyfriend, husband and wife. Men who force their girlfriends or wives into having sex are committing rape, period. The laws are blurry, and in some countries marital rape is legal. But it still is rape. - From the book Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse” by Dr Patti Feuereisen

We all have heard that marriage is a sacred institution, a bond of mutual trust, love and respect. But does this grant license to the husband to force himself on his wife? Observing that the age-old regressive notion that husbands are the rulers of their wives, their body, mind and soul should be effaced”, the Karnataka High should not be construed to confer any special male privilege or license for unleashing of a brutal beast for any of the acts which when performed by a common man are made to be punishable.

While noting that the Constitution, which is the fountainhead of all statutes, treats women equal to men and does not in any manner depict them to be subordinate to them, the Court underlined: “If the Constitution mandates equality, the statute ought to follow suit. If a man, a husband, a man he is, can be exempted of allegation of commission of ingredients of Section 375 of the IPC, inequality percolates into such provision of law. Therefore, it would run counter to what is enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution.