Marital rape: While Centre says don’t criminalise, Opposition leaders have been pushing for it

On Friday, speaking to The Indian Express, CPI(M) person Brinda Karat described the authorities submission successful the Supreme Court arsenic “regressive”. “It is retrograde and regressive due to the fact that it fundamentally sees a woman’s assemblage arsenic portion of a matrimony declaration successful which the hubby has afloat rights implicit her body. This is fundamentally what the government’s connection means contempt each the ifs and buts it has added to it. It is saying a woman’s assemblage is not her ain but her husband’s,” Karat said.

The Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who had earlier batted for criminalisation of marital rape, was much measured. “The contented is sensitive. It has to beryllium dealt with precise comprehensively. Opinions of each stakeholders should beryllium taken truthful that a broad presumption tin beryllium taken. It is precise hard to differentiate what is marital rape and what is conjugal cohabitation. It is simply a delicate matter. It should beryllium near to the judiciary to instrumentality a call. It needs a wide treatment among each sections of the society. We are a divers culture,” Chowdhury told The Indian Express.

The connection is simply a flimsy departure from the stance that Chowdhury took successful his dissent enactment successful the Parliamentary Standing Committee study published past twelvemonth connected the 3 caller transgression laws to regenerate the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act.

Flagging deficiencies successful the projected laws, Chowdhury had written, “Despite claiming that the caller Bills were drafted keeping successful caput the contented of women’s safety, the authorities continues to exempt acts of marital rape from ambit of rape laws. The designation of marital rape arsenic an offence has been a longstanding request from Indian women crossed the board.”

The basal taken by Chowdhury had been repeated verbatim by different Congress members of the committee, including Rajya Sabha MPs Digvijaya Singh and Ravneet Singh.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien had successful 2022 adjacent introduced a backstage member’s Bill seeking to criminalise marital rape. He had argued that immoderate objection to the explanation of rape is antithetical to the close to beingness and liberty, and that each women person the close to pb a harmless and dignified life.

In his dissent enactment successful the Parliamentary Standing Committee study connected the 3 transgression laws, O’Brien had said, “The assemblage laws did not recognise men and women arsenic equals and merged the individuality of women with their husbands. The Bharatiya Sakshya Bill does not marque immoderate important changes to the ‘colonial’ Indian Evidence Act, adjacent though the Law Commission study of 2003 had suggested truthful galore changes successful the signifier of amendment and substitution of provisions.”

In 2015, DMK MP Kanimozhi had raised the contented successful the Rajya Sabha. Citing a United Nations Population Fund report, she had said much than 75% of the joined women successful India were victims of marital rape and that determination were nary laws successful India to woody with the problem.

In the 167th study of the Standing Committee connected the Ministry of Home Affairs, which examined the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2012, the CPI’s D Raja had said, “Both the Ordinance and the Standing Committee exempt marital rape from being considered a transgression nether Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code. This is contrary to the provisions of the Indian Constitution, which considers each women arsenic adjacent quality beings who person a close to unrecorded with dignity and escaped from unit wrong and extracurricular marriage.”

Raja pointed retired that this was besides contrary to the Verma Committee report, which had pointed retired that the “exemption for marital rape stems from a agelong outdated conception of marriage, which regarded wives arsenic nary much than the spot of their husbands … whereas matrimony is successful modern times regarded arsenic a concern of equals”.

In March 2021, the past undivided NCP’s Rajya MP Vandana Chavan raised the contented of marital rape during Zero Hour successful Parliament. Chavan argued that for decades determination person been demands from respective quarters asking that marital rape beryllium made a transgression offence. “After the lockdown, especially, we person seen that these instances person increased, and, successful fact, the seriousness besides amplified to a large extent,” she said.

Stating that Parliament had ever taken proactive steps towards the extortion of women, she said: “… wherefore past are we not treating marital rape arsenic an offence?… The Justice Verma Committee recommended the same. More than a 100 countries successful the satellite person made marital rape an offence and we autumn lone among the 36 countries that person not.” Chavan besides called the government’s statement that it would destabilise the instauration of matrimony “absurd”.

“When a hubby beats his woman oregon subjects her to intelligence oregon carnal cruelty, it is an offence. So, if helium forcibly sexually abuses her, does this not magnitude to an offence? So, this is an absurd argument,” she said.

The SP’s Jaya Bachchan, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, RJD’s Manoj Jha, Aam Aadmi Party’s Narayan Das Gupta, BRS’s Banda Prakash, DMK’s P Wilson, Congress’s Chhaya Verma, and BJD’s Amar Patnaik, Bhaskar Rao Nekkanti and Sasmit Patra person each been associated with the cause.