Prathana Patel, GLS Law College, Ahmedabad
ABSTRACT
Section 375 of the Indian Penal code deals with the rape laws. However, the detailed and amended definition of Rape has some lacunas pertaining to the inclusion of marital rape in it. The section does not punish the married man having forced and non-consensual sexual intercourse with his wife above the age of eighteen. Therefore, India is not one of those countries that have criminalized marital rape instead had given counter arguments and defended its non-criminalized form.
The small part of the definition, briefs regarding the marital rape. However, the scope of punishment is very limited and looking to the current scenario, it fails to impart justice to those who are unable to fit into the limited scope. There are arguments are found where it is proven that in certain sphere the law is contradicting itself yet, the same is not highlighted by submitting counter arguments. The paper highlight the case law where the court highlighted that how the law is contradicting itself.
The paper thoroughly discusses about the non-criminalized status of marital rape in India and shows how the law is countering the constitution of India, and to begin, it briefly highlights the history of marital rape in our country. Then the paper talks about the importance of criminalizing the act of marital rape along with various relevant judgments passed by the Indian courts. Lastly, the paper discusses the argument of both the sides for the need of law and reason why it isn't criminalized yet along with the case laws which highlights the view of the court pertaining to the stated issue.
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