Criminalisation of Marital Rape: SC for Detail Hearing on May 9

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to have a detailed hearing on a batch of petitions pertaining to criminalisation of marital rape on May 9.

This matter was taken up by senior advocate Indira Jaising before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. She told the bench that the order of arguments and common compilation in the case is ready. The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also informed the court that the Centre’s reply related to the issue is ready and has to be examined.

“List this on May 9,” the Supreme Court bench said.

The top court on January 16 had directed the Central Government to declare its stance on petitions seeking the criminalization of marital rape by February 15. Under the existing Indian laws related to rape, marital rape is treated as an exception.

A three-judge Bench led by the Chief Justice of the apex court, Justice DY Chandrachud asked all the parties to file their written submissions by March 3. The matter was to be taken up for hearing on March 21, 2023.

The Bench appointed advocates Pooja Dhar and Jaikriti Jageda as nodal counsel to prepare a common compilation of all the petitions, affidavits, counter-affidavits, and written submissions in relation to the case for the convenience of judges and lawyers.

There are three sets of petitions related to marital rape. The first one is by a Karnataka man who is being tried for marital rape. The top court had on July 20, 2022 stayed the verdict of the Karnataka high court that put the man on trial for allegedly raping his wife ignoring Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC that treated such cases as an exception to rape.

The second set of petitions is the appeals filed against a split verdict delivered by the Delhi High Court on May 11, 2022, on petitions seeking to criminalize marital rape.