The Chhattisgarh High Court in India has ruled that forced unnatural intercourse between a man and his adult wife does not warrant punishment under current law.
The judgment, delivered by Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas, concerned a case involving a 40-year-old man whose wife died in the hospital after suffering injuries from unnatural intercourse. The doctor’s report revealed peritonitis and rectal perforation as the cause of death.
The man had been arrested in 2017 and convicted by a trial court in Bastar district under IPC Sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural intercourse), and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
The conviction followed the wife’s dying declaration to an executive magistrate, where she stated she became ill due to “forceful s*xual intercourse.” She had also complained of pain and informed her family about her husband’s actions.
Marital rape is not criminalized in India, and this ruling further removes unnatural intercourse within marriage from the scope of punishment.
The High Court ruled that any s*xual act between a husband and wife, if the wife is over 15 years of age, cannot be classified as rape, even without consent. Therefore, the charges under Sections 376 and 377 could not stand. The judgment explained that, due to legislative amendments, the offense of marital rape is not recognized under Section 375 IPC.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had been considering petitions seeking the criminalization of marital rape, but the hearings were suspended due to the retirement of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. A new bench is expected to resume the matter.
The Indian government has argued that criminalizing marital rape could undermine the institution of marriage and has emphasized that Parliament has already enacted measures to protect the consent of married women. The government has maintained that it is not within the judiciary’s purview to decide on the issue.
