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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Govt’s stand on marital rape stirs debate among lawyers -Swati Deshpande

Govt’s stand on marital rape stirs debate among lawyers -Swati Deshpande

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published Published on May 2, 2015   modified Modified on May 2, 2015
-The Times of India

MUMBAI: The Centre's stand against making marital rape a criminal offence saw legal bigwigs take a divided stand.

Some like the former Union law minister, the foremost legal mind on criminal law Ram Jethmalani and former Supreme Court judge K T Thomas supported the Centre's view that the law must not be changed, while legal luminary Soli Sorabjee said it was time to make rape within marriage a crime too.

"I don't think marital rape should be made an offence," Jethmalani told TOI on Friday. "If there is trouble within marriage where a husband is accused of forcing himself on his wife, she can leave. Why should the provision of rape be brought into a married life?"

He said, "But there could be a trust that the government can set up to support women who face such crisis within marriage," said Jethmalani. There are provisions in the Hindu Marriage Act, the Indian Penal Code and Domestic Violence Act which take care of violence within marriage and offer recourse to women, he said.

"She should be bold and come out. The society should help her. The government can contribute money to make a trust for such women..." said Jethmalani. While retired Justice Thomas also said that he agreed with the Centre's view to not make rape within marriage a crime. "The law as it stands must continue. There is no need to change the law regarding rape."

But Sorabjee said, "How can a woman, a wife be allowed to face rape within marriage." He told TOI, "It should be made an offence. Just because a woman is married one cannot allow a man, be it her husband, to rape her."

While no personal law encourages force on a wife within marriage, the issue of making marital rape a law has stirred a debate. Leading family court lawyers say that while violence in a marriage cannot be countenanced, such legislation can clash with laws that permit restitution of conjugal rights within a marriage. Legal experts, including some women activists and lawyers like Kranti Sathe, question if allowing added criminal provisions to a marital relationship is the answer when provisions against cruelty to wife already exist as law and include excessive demand of sex.

A lawyer said Section 498A can be made more stringent with punishment for an offence of forced intercourse by a man with his wife increased to ten years. But adding spousal rape as a separate charge punishable with life imprisonment may spell more trouble for the concept of marriage in a country governed by diverse personal laws.

"If non-consensual sex is made an offence of rape, what happens to the provision of restitution of conjugal rights?'' Sathe said. The provision allows a husband or wife to move court for an order to get the opposing spouse back home and in bed, if the refusal is without reason. "It will strike at the existence of marriage if every act within marriage is criminalized," she added. The Congress regime too had considered the issue of sexual assault on wives when Ashwani Kumar was the Union law minister and after a "holistic analysis" the government had felt that "existing laws were adequate to deal with such situations".

The Times of India, 2 May, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govts-stand-on-marital-rape-stirs-debate-among-lawyers/articleshow/47125451.cms


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