India calls for leniency in marital rape cases

India's government has insisted that marital rape should be treated more leniently than other rape offences in an ongoing Supreme Court case brought by campaigners seeking to outlaw it.

The Penal Code introduced in the 19th century during British colonial rule of India explicitly states that "sexual acts by a man with his own wife... is not rape".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government enacted an overhauled code in July which retains that clause, despite the decade-long court challenge by activists seeking to make marital rape illegal.

India's Interior Ministry filed an affidavit to the Supreme Court on Oct 3 stating that while marital rape should result in "penal consequences", the legal system should treat it more leniently than rape committed outside of marriage.

"A husband certainly does not have any fundamental right to violate the consent of his wife," the affidavit said, according to The Indian Express newspaper.